Yes folks, these are words of wisdom from my son Tyler. As you know, I totally love living and learning from him, he is one of my very best teachers. Let me unpack this one for you.

Tyler and I were in Kauai in May. A trip we had planned for several months. We wanted to hike the Na Pali Coast, so we followed all the directions, got on the website 30 days in advance, and reserved our spot on Mother’s Day.

The day of the hike was gorgeous, after a morning rain shower, we headed out from our Princeville Airbnb to catch our shuttle to the Na Pali Coast. I think this is where the cockiness started. As we surveyed the others on the shuttle we thought, we are in pretty good shape compared to this crew.

We got dropped off at the beginning of the trail, met under a shelter, and got the orientation from the guide. She shared in our excitement of the hike ahead, the beauty, and she also advised that it had some treacherous terrain. She warned us to be aware of the rain, and that recently a hiking group got trapped over night from a stream’s rising water. No problem the kid thinks. I’m getting nervous, but I’m with him. Then she says, prepare to take 4 hours for the two mile hike to a famous beach and back. We both looked at each other, with that look, she doesn’t know who she is talking to – 4 hours for two miles? No way. She set us free.

We headed out. If you have every hiked this, you know the first adventure is climbing up an elevation of steep rocks, that were wet and muddy. I pretended this was no problem, kept up the pace, Tyler’s legs are the size of tree trunks – so no worry for him scaling the rocks.

The trail continues – and it is muddy, seriously muddy, like puddles where you had to watch your every step. And that’s what we did, we watched every step around rocks, up inclines, down inclines, no railing, only a cliff/slope to one side that fell into the ocean. But we didn’t look up. We just watched every step, inching along. There were steep declines, rocks, mud, more inclines, more rocks, more mud. We were not prepared for this, watching every step. This went on for hours folks – like 2 hours to go a mile. It was crazy.

Tyler was very sweet, concerned about my ability to navigate this, looking for a hiking stick for me. When we reached a major stream, about 2 hours in – I said uncle, I’m not crossing that. It got me, it humbled me.

It gets better. On the way back, Tyler gets the idea to go barefoot. So every step on rocks, puddles, mud, up, down, around – barefoot. We just keep looking down. Don’t look up, too close to the edge. This again goes on for another 2 hours, it was crazy. People had toddlers and babies on this. We reached the incline of rocks we had climbed up at the beginning, made our way down – shoes destroyed, Tyler’s feet were destroyed – it humbled us for sure.

That’s when he said it, “mom, you go in cocky, and you get your ass kicked.” 2 miles, a little over 4 hours folks.

I’ve been thinking about this wisdom lately. We don’t talk about our number of yoga practices, our number of leg days, our number of volunteer hours, no we just reflect that number in our words, and actions, and choices – and somehow when we do this with reverence people just know. If we go in cocky about this, we do get our ass kicked. Once you say you are the master, you somehow become the student. In yoga when we say namaste, we bow that the student and teacher in me salutes the student and teacher in you. We are all in this figuring it out together.

And when we live in reverence, and humility, and low ego what happens is miraculous. We are blessed with wisdom, and guidance, and intelligence to navigate whatever is treacherous in the terrain. If we go in cocky, the stream could take us out. It just doesn’t work. It’s important in these times to bow in this reverence of all that is, none of us have this figured out. We have to be very reverent, because in this crazy world, it’s our holiness not our cockiness that lifts us up and figures out treacherous terrain, whether that’s a relationship, a job challenge, health, money. Humility inspires us to be the very best we can be in each moment. We have to be careful folks, very careful. Remember, your holiness has power, endless wisdom.

So, I’m going bow a little more, practice a little more humility, put my ego on a diet. I know I’ll get my ass kicked some days, but it will be perfect in some way – it always is.

Thank you Tyler. May I be with you again soon in your endless wisdom. I am blessed.

With love,

Jill