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Writer's pictureHeather Kirkby

Back in the Groove

We are back in Bellver. The seasons are changing, slowly. Some colors, some rain yet still some warm days. Maybe unnaturally warm. Climate change is very real here. Locals talk about the warmer summers, the bike season getting longer, the ski season getting shorter and less and less snow. Killian Jornet came (back home) to the Pyrenees last summer and did a monster traverse. He was struck by the visible impact of climate change on the peaks and glaciers (mostly gone) of his youth. He is not a grizzled old mountain man. Killian is 36 years old.


I imagine sometimes what our valley will look like in fifty years. We’re leaving in less than fifty days. We’ll be back. This place has touched our hearts. For now I am embracing each ordinary day. It will pick up speed at the end. Life is like that.


Ordinary life here is hiking. Justin and I went up Tossa de Lles. A simple ramp of a mountain starting at Cap del Rec Refugi with views galore.


Ordinary life here is bike rides, playgrounds, pump track, watching America’s cup, reading and eating pulled pork sandwiches and churros at the local town fair.


Ordinary life here is spontaneous drives to nearby towns. In Seu d’Urgell we stumbled upon a farmers market, the best sushi in Catalonia, rad catherdral art and the site of the 1992 Olympic Canoe and Kayak races. We took the long way home through Pyrenean foothills and tiny towns.


On the drive home from Seu d’Urgell I asked the kids if they were taking all this beauty for granted. “No way” they responded.


And some scenes from where I run on ordinary days, not taking it for granted:


Read an Anne Lamott book of short stories about grace and forgiveness. She is deep and funny and real as shit. Inspires me to go in search of my funny bone. I’m sure that’s part of my unbecoming journey :) I definitely danced and laughed more, and was probably occasionally funny, before piling on decades in corporate Americana.







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