Thoughts on Hiking on Kili. 4 of 5: Trust your Boots.

Our guides repeatedly called out, “Trust your boots!” That was the one piece of equipment they inspected before leaving at the very start of the climb. New boots get you sent home. Broken-in boots a must, so much so, you wear them on the plane; the one thing you can’t replace were luggage to be lost. Made sleeping a problem in coach, as size 13 heavy duty hiking boots just don’t fit in a regular aisle. But you learn to trust them. Plant your foot, balance your weight, shift, turn, lift your body. Plant your other foot. Repeat. I trust my boots. 

I don’t trust my gut though. They say, “trust your gut,” but I think that’s wrong. Your gut is a mash up of under-thought intuition, amorphous fears, vague notions, and unfounded feelings of confidence. I don’t trust people who trust their gut. It means they chose not to think it through. We over weight our gut at the least. Better to trust your boots. 
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I mean by boots, of course, the people I love & the traditions & the honed and broken in powers of reason and thoughtfulness, the practice of daily prayer and reading. All leading to the presence and meaning and purpose of the one in whom we live and breath and hike with.