Chinese (and Korean!) New Year, on the second new moon after winter solstice, is a more fitting date to mark a new year than the Western alternative. The days are lengthening, and—for frustrated soaring pilots like me—the first breaths of spring thermals are just around the corner.
This time last year, I was psyched up for an assault on the UK XC league. But “life” got in the way—work, family and plain bad luck. My season was epitomized by a 2 week holiday at the end of July—the only flyable day turned out to be the only day that I was not free to go flying on. Desperation set in. Not achieving my goal was driving me mad.
My luck eventually turned in August, on our family holiday in Slovenia. I had some of the best flying in my life, my first proper mountain flying for years. I rediscovered my love of big air and big mountain scenery.
Another source of inspiration towards the end of 2009 was the series of articles on pilotage in Parapente Mag by David Eyraud. I realized that there’s so much to more to learn—and so much fun to be had—even on “boring soaring” days, even on my local grey UK hills.
So for 2010, I plan to build on these sources of inspiration. I don’t know when I’ll have chance to fly. But whenever I do, I’ll forget my goals and simply enjoy each day to the max.
As the great Slovenian Himalayan climber Nejc Zaplotnik wrote, we all should live and appreciate every single day:
Kdor isce cilj, bo ostal prazen, ko ga bo nasel. Kdor najde pot, bo cilj vedno nosil v sebi.
Literally in English: He who is looking just for the goal, will stay empty when he finds it. But the one who finds the way, will always carry his goal inside.
To me, these words are a nice reminder that the journey is more important than the destination. It’s a philosophy that’s nothing new to many of us, but it’s easy to keep forgetting it within the confines of our everyday modern existence.
Photo of me thanks to Mike Miller
