The Hat of Mindfulness (and safari photos)

Believe it or not, one of the keys to getting me up and down Mount Kilimanjaro was a hat. Not just any hat, but THE HAT OF MINDFULNESS.

Before we left, I bought myself a wide-brimmed hat, just the thing for keeping the African sun off my face and the back of my neck. Check out how adorable it is ———————————>

What I didn’t realize is that the hat and my backpack weren’t going to work together. At all. Every time I looked up, the back of the hat hit the backpack and the front brim dropped down over my eyes. Every. Single. Time. It was like a Three Stooges movie: I’d fix the hat, walk a few steps, then look up and see nothing but the underside of the hat brim. Fix the hat, walk a few steps, look up and, well, you get the picture.

Finally, I got it: wearing the hat, I could only see a couple of steps in front of me. You know what? THAT WAS THE BEST THING EVER!

Like blinders on a horse, the hat of mindfulness narrowed my scope of vision, allowing me to consider only my next two steps. I couldn’t look far ahead, so I never got freaked out by what was coming up. What a lesson in mindfulness: I stayed well in the moment and kept moving forward, one step at a time. Every once in a while I’d take a look around to check out the scenery, adjust my hat and carry on. Rather than fretting about the (straight up, probably rocky and lethal) terrain coming up, I stayed focused on the step I was taking. This felt amazing. And probably kept me sane.

The trick now is to keep that practice going. One step at a time. 

I’ll bet animals are naturally mindful. Otherwise they’ll get themselves eaten. Here are some of the amazing creatures we saw on safari.

She’s enjoying the shade – we didn’t run her over. Promise.

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