The Day I Tamed the Wild
Lake Nordenskjöld, Torres del Paine, Última Esperanza, Chile 🇨🇱
Torres del Paine W Trek Day 3
The day I tamed the wild
I did not so much tame her, as I did become her, much as I have already been
Long have I known that I no longer wish to see the world, but to feel her
And on this day, I felt all of her
On this day, I became a real woman.
On the third day of this mystical hike in the deep south of Chile, I walked among the Wild of the world, until I became it.
Down here, she is a rare type of wild, merciless & infatuated with the chaos she creates.
You will not leave this place without knowing she is in charge.
It was silent in the early morning, save for the clicking of my trekking poles against the ground and the rain that fell softly. The wet clouds misted the land and shrunk the horizon to just beyond my grasp.
As I walked among the wildflowers that many call weeds, I left nothing behind but soft prints upon the earth and the magic of my spirit in the air.
As I walk, the rain falls harder. The fog grows thicker. My pack grows heavier.
As I walk, I cross rivers with no crossing. I blindly step into depths I cannot guess, trying to stay my foot that gets snatched by the water that rushes violently beneath me.
As I walk deeper into the Wild, I walk deeper into my own, braving & befriending the elements whose expressions are guised as menacing threats.
The winds here are alive. Their howls & screeches whip through the air like an army of haunted spirits. They rage against me, violently tossing me off the trail & nearly off the edge of the world itself.
Rain that was once soft batters my face, feeling like shards of glass that slice my skin.
When I thought she had reached her full height, she raged even harder. She flung my faith from my body, almost bringing me to my knees. In that moment of anguish, of letting out a whimpering cry, the noise that emerged from my breastbone magically morphed into a battlecry. A scream that challenged to see if that’s all that she could do.
Still I stood in her onslaught, blinded by her winds & sharp, icy rain.
Still I withstood her until her whips felt like caresses & her stings like a charged, electric aliveness.
The might & power she threw at me I lassoed & harnessed & it became my own
It was only when I felt all of her, that I felt all of myself.
Only then, I understood what it meant to be truly invincible. To be able to feel everything to such an aching degree that the pain & discomfort morph into an aliveness that awakens the sleeping spirit.
To be able to stand when the world orders you to fall, but your knees can’t buckle.
To be able to smile amidst heartbreak & heartache
To find solace amidst a world that rages all around, with its ending ever-pending
To know that the world is as equally full of suffering as it is of beauty & enjoyment
To know that the wise ever focus on the latter.
