by AnnSheybani | Oct 6, 2013 | adventure, Confidence, Courage, Denali, Driving Miss Daisy, extreem dependency, Fearless Living, Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway, Ireland, Reading, route finding, tenacity
I’m learning to drive all over again in Ireland. This doesn’t sound like a big deal, I know, but it feels death defying. Most of the time, I pretty much want to scream and cry, or blame my misery on horrible Walt. Smug Walt. Gasp-y Walt. The Irish, for whatever...
by AnnSheybani | Jul 7, 2013 | climbing lessons, death, Denali, desire, developing world, Dinah Shore, Gail Sheehy, goals, gratitude, identity, process, Rescue, running, Second Adulthood, Secrets, Shiraz, slavery, South Beach Diet, The Confidence Garden
Because we learn best from people who understand our demons. An alcoholic is best helped by a former drunk. The mother of an autistic child needs someone who has run the gauntlet themselves. You kinda want your divorce lawyer to understand your impulse to burn your...
by AnnSheybani | Sep 3, 2012 | climbing lessons, Confidence, Courage, Denali, expectations, mountain climbing, Rescue
The trail was 45-minutes long. One of those long, windy black diamond numbers over steep moguls, through unconsolidated snow. My bindings were acting up. One turn, two, and my ski would fall off. Walt was getting frustrated. Down on his hands and knees for the...
by AnnSheybani | May 13, 2011 | adventure, books, Courage, Denali, goals, mountain climbing
This is a guest post by Walt Hampton. A beautiful example of how one book can alter the course of a life. It had been a warm summer day in August of 1972. My father had purchased the book for me that morning in a Nantucket bookshop, the book that would change...
by AnnSheybani | Oct 28, 2010 | adventure, Authenticity, Codependency, Confidence, Denali, Into the Wild, Jean Craighead George, Krakauer, mountain climbing, The Other Side of the Mountain
I had lunch last week with an old friend I hadn’t seen in years. Both oddballs in high school, we’d dreamed of baking bread together when we graduated, raising sheep, and starting a commune in rural Vermont. She’d do the wool spinning and...