The Thru-Hike of Misery
/What if the adventure of a lifetime doesn’t turn out the way you’d hoped?
Paul Barach on the Shikoku Pilgrimage (Photo by Paul Barach)
“I’d be walking through a breathtaking landscape, but instead of enjoying it, I’d stare at the ground, willing myself to walk faster so that I could get off my feet sooner. My motivation had changed from ‘Be here now’ to ‘Get done fast’. ”
When Paul Barach embarked on his first thru-hike, he was expecting a life-changing experience. The Shikoku Pilgrimage, which traverses Japan’s most rural island and takes visitors past 88 Buddhist temples, promised to be a spiritual and meditative journey, as well as an epic adventure.
But the reality wasn’t so nice.
On this episode, Paul tells the story of what happens when the adventure of a lifetime turns out to be bleak and unfulfilling. How do you make peace with the worst parts of hiking, when those parts never end?
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To hear more about Paul’s pilgrimage on Shikoku Island, you can read his book, Fighting Monks and Burning Mountains.
FOR FURTHER LISTENING
If you enjoy this episode, check out Paul’s story “Back to the Real World.” That episode explores how you navigate returning home from a life-changing journey, to a world that is literally and metaphorically on fire.
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