Learning to Counterbalance

Scene from a morning run on a wet summer’s day.

https://manabernardes.com/2024/21ldxqwv Lately I’ve been a bit itchy, a bit restless. It’s not a foreign feeling for me; somehow it often hits this time of year—I’m an inclement weather person, and maybe there’s something about the wintertime snow / rain (depending where I’m living at any given time) that keeps the brain occupied and the creative juices flowing. Summer is a challenge and, at 26, I’m finally learning to recognize that the panicky, uneasy feeling the summer months tend to import will pass with time and patience.

https://modaypadel.com/ox5k0b1 The key is learning to survive in the meantime, and a big part of the survival tactic is learning to pace myself. For Fire Girl work, it’s important to diversify and make certain I work outside the comfortable world of fly fishing. A very real part of me misses covering news—forest fires, car crashes, working alongside the military—anything with inherent, serious danger. Miss the gravity of it, the weight of it, being kept awake in the middle of the night by a story that http://www.wowogallery.com/cynph8kh6m just seems to have more hidden parts, wondering what connects all the little dots.

Outdoor photography and fishing photography/writing will always pay the bills, and it’s fun as hell, but sometimes it’s nice to churn the brain into knots and see what comes of it.

And so, it’s a balance I continually work to figure out. Somehow I think maybe there’s no easy answer; that there will always be that push-pull balance to navigate. Business great Hugh Macleoud wrote, “The hunger will give you everything and it will take from you, everything. It will cost you your life, and there isn’t a damn thing you can do about it.” I think I’m finally wrapping my head around that idea.

It’s a mental balance more than anything. I’ve been forcibly unplugging from the computer as often as I can, taking long hikes in the Green Mountains near Manchester. There’s a kind of unique peacefulness that comes from being out in the wilderness alone, and problems are chewed through far more easily when the body’s working overtime. I always return to the trailhead physically exhausted and (at least somewhat) mentally calmed. A new ritual of 5am runs through the quiet streets of town also affords some good “mental organization” time; I can revel in the quiet of the typically tourist-laden streets and peer in shop windows as I trot around rain-wet sidewalks and trails. I’m a hiker; definitely not a runner, but it’s about learning to counterbalance the mental with the physical and make some time to simply unplug.

https://gungrove.com/n8vribqcwe9 Well, that’s this week’s odd little harangue. It’s been a productive couple weeks; look for more FGP articles and photos coming your way soon in various print and digital formats, and more tales of off-beat adventures coming to the blog. What’s the cliché? https://www.chat-quiberon.com/2024/01/18/xbitkefcw Can’t stop, won’t stop.