I Survived Samaria G(e)orge...

It is amazing how an experience, something you have done or someone you've met can make a difference in your life. It is the moment you realise you are strong and that if you can survive this...you can make it anywhere (or something like that :-).

My moment was three years ago, the summer of 2006. I tend to talk about that summer a lot. Apart from the fact that I had the time of my life, on a Greek island, with my uni friends, there is another great reason to remember this particular summer. THE GORGE...

We were staying in Chania (Crete). The locals informed us (but we already knew) that there was a great walkabout, a gorge that every visitor who respects himself and herself should try and cross. It is a 16 km, rocky-kind of ground, with wild animals and 'cliffs'...it wasn't so bad! Just 5-6 hours of walking, getting fresh air, cleaning the lungs and exercising (oh and time for female bonding-I mean a 6 hour-walk with friends, talk about hanging out together :-)

So we started walking...

and walking...

and then we walked some more...

and six hours after our non-stop walk...

Hallelujah!!

Every time I am up against something that stresses me or gives me a hard time, I try to remember the hours I spend in that gorge. I felt tired, hot, exhausted, excited, small and helpless facing nature in all its beauty and power. I also felt like I was part of a team, companion and friendship, like this gorge had power over us, it could give us a tiny part of its 'strength' if we let it.

I think I learned a bit more about myself that day. I reached my limits...only to find out that this wasn't my limit after all. I learned more about the choice I made when it comes to my friends and the people I choose to hold close to me. I liked what I saw, my choices couldn't have been better when it came to friends.

We are still friends with the girls I went walking in that gorge. When you reach the end of the trail you end up in a village that one can approach only by sea or by crossing this gorge. A boat is waiting for you to take you back home, this time you don't have to walk, you just sit on the boat and the engine does the work. All you can do is look back where you came from, look at you and your friends and realise that you entered one 'door' in the morning and exited another one in the afternoon...you are not the same. You are stronger.

My friend Sophia gave me a T-shirt as a memoir...it is one of these things you can get in order to remember where you've been. The T-shirt has a sentence on it..."I Survived Samaria George". We laughed at the spelling mistake...I still have that T-shirt, still laugh, still love that "george"!

Check it out if you like...

take care now
peace and love
xoxo