As you saw with my post last week, stress was certainly a threat to destroy me, especially given that my 7-day week was shortened to a 5-day week. Why? Because Saturday I jumped in the car for a 13-hour drive up to the Berkshires in northwestern Massachusetts. It was a lovely drive, especially through the Catskills. The final leg from Albany over to Williamstown was a stunning history lesson of a very old Western frontier in the early to mid 1700s. Village and village dated back to that period, with nothing but wildness between. It's drive to take again.
Meanwhile, the week has been extremely emotionally stressful because it starts the last two weeks of one of my career paths. I had resigned months back, but now that it's here, and I'm in the process of transitioning the replacement, it's a constant reminder of having developed something from nothing over a period of seven years, and then walking away. This has happened before, and is a testament to my better role as a start-up consultant, but the difficulty in transitioning never changes. Other emotional aspects of course are intertwined with the decision to move forward, so suffice to say, it's a difficult week, with another coming.
As such, what better time to put myself into circumstances that are utterly beautiful and relaxing to my spirit? My friend and I had massive plans of hiking, yoga, reading, eating, drinking and learning. After a hike from hell (pictured above), the following day deteriorated into multiple naps followed by extremely difficult decisions, such as "should I watch this utterly stupid movie" or "should I fall asleep again reading a book"? Very stressful.
Once that day was utterly blown in a wonderful way (after my work was done), we realised that the previous day had zero activity (unless rolling over on the couch counts). Thus, a huge foray was planned into the village of Williamstown, in which I was informed was the location of the exclusive Williams College. It's an adorable village that proffered the wonderful opportunity to purchase soft socks and replace my broken pencil sharpener.
Yes, it's very possible our sense of urgency dramatically altered in priority, and it's equally possible that the soft socks are keeping my brain altered (they are really awesomely soft). In fact, before another lovely day of meetings and tasks, we are striking out for another huge hike, convinced that our new soft socks will protect us from the insanity of Mt. Greylock.
We will see.
