"Can't" is an ever-changing mark

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments. Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove:

O, no! it is an ever-fixed mark,

That looks on tempests and is never shaken

-Shakespeare, Sonnet 116

Apologies to Shakespeare for altering his words, but as I look back on three months here in the desert, I have discovered that the word "can't" is an ever-changing mark.  What I would have said I couldn't do three months ago, and what I would say I can't do today, is very different.

Slot Canyon, Calcite Mine hike

Four months ago I would have said I couldn't move to the middle of nowhere CA's desert to build an archive.  I didn't have the experience, the knowledge, the abilities.  So I moved to Ocotillo to work at the Imperial Valley Desert Museum establishing their archive from the ground up.  Three months ago I would have said I couldn't climb a mountain.  I couldn't rock climb up a little slot in a canyon. Between not being in great physical shape, lousy balance (especially compared to my mountain goat roommates) and my own delightful TBI challenges, I couldn't have imagined climbing mountains, even small ones, to see the view from the top.  Now I'm posting pictures from the tops of (granted, small) mountains.

View from top of Coyote or Laguna Mountains. 12/4/12

I am by no means an extreme hiker at this stage. But yesterday we went on a "staff meeting" to hike Canyon Sin Nombre in Anza Borrego State Park. Last month we hiked the Calcite Mine hike. Both times we came to rocky slots of canyons that I would have looked at and assumed that was the end of the trail.  I watched others climb through and said "I can't do that." And then I did it.

I guess the point of this is that I am learning what most people already know.  Challenges, both physical and mental, are good for you.  There will always be things that you can't do. But just because you can't do them one day doesn't mean you shouldn't try it again in a month. Because then, maybe you can do it.

And since I'll be coming back here in January, who knows what "can't" will mean for me then?

My definition of "can't" is always changing.