Our 10th wedding anniversary   (Tin for those like me who didnt know) and I’m returning  from a business trip to Barcelona. 4 days away and I am more then ready to come home.

I was coming in late but at least I was going to make it home on the day.

Life over the last 10 years has been an adventure in contrasts. 

Finding marriage to a pretty awesome person (I may be biased) but losing my father isnt a trade I would recomend for anyone but the latter without the former would have been impossoble to bear.

Nearly having a breakdown after the loss and nearly losing so much more but then finding ultimate solace and saving that which was most important through the unlikely discovery of the mountains.

Sometimes you need to do somethimg very hard to make life so much easier to carry. Pushing your physical and mental limits helping you shed pain and stress , carried in the sweat of effort.

 And through it finding everday life not a challenge to manage but instead an adventure to salve the soul.

My flight is delayed. I miss my connection. I’m not making it home today.

You only get a 10 year anniversary once. Tin.

Gates closed and the next flight isnt until tomorrow so off to a hotel I head after being processed more like lost luggage than a inconvenienced lifeform. 
But life is an adventure . Will getting angry or upset make the plane fly earlier? Will passing my stress to another get me home any quicker? Will worrying stop time so that I can stil make it today? 

Better to resolve it, think instead about how to make the adventure more comfrtable or fun..smile and maybe even improve the day of the poor lady facing all these self important disconnected travellers. Be a radiator of good not a drain. 

I had been watching a film on high ball bouldering on my flight , Jamie Woods working a 1st ascent V16 and what seemed a minor point in the film became a major tool to bring out of the mental tool box.

Breathe in through the nose. Out through the nose. Calm. At peace. 

So I sit here at 6am a day late. A day too late. The world waking up and heading to destinations unknown while I head to the only place that matters.

I’m heading home to continue the adventure. It’ll be our 11th anniversary next year. Let’s see where the adventure takes us before then.

And for those like me who dont know,  11 years is steel. 

Steel is much stronger than tin.But tin it seems is stronger than we might think.