Today's Heartlift with Janell
Sometimes the story we tell ourselves is not really true. Sometimes the story others tell about us is not really true. On "Today's Heartlift with Janell," Author, Trauma-informed, board-certified marriage and family specialist, and Professional Heartlifter, Janell Rardon, opens conversations about how emotional health and mental fitness effects absolutely every area of our lives. When we possess and practice healthy, strong, resilient emotional health practices, life is so much better. Read Janell's newest book, "Stronger Every Day: 9 Tools for an Emotionally Healthy You."
Today's Heartlift with Janell
280. A Special Father's Day Message with Glen Van Peski: Take Less. Do More.
"Examine everything you carry."
-Glen Van Peski
Glen Van Peski, engineer, outdoor gear innovator, and author of "Take Less, Do More: Surprising Life Lessons in Generosity, Gratitude, and Curiosity from an Ultralight Backpacker," shares with Janell "his ultralight ethos" of living with "the lightest possible backpack."
Glen's extraordinary journey, from exploring California's western outdoors to founding Gossamer Gear, a leading ultralight backpacking equipment company, offers profound insights into how minimalism in hiking extends to life. We celebrate his adventures on trails like the Pacific Crest Trail and his explorations in Japan and Europe, where he has gleaned invaluable lessons on generosity, gratitude, and curiosity.
Order Glen's new book for all the men in your life. It is the perfect Father's Day gift. Here are two ways to order:
- Amazon. If you email Glen directly at glen@glenvanpeski.com and let him know you ordered the book on Amazon (provide the order number, please), Glen will mail you a signed bookplate to personalize your book. It won’t be there in time for Father's Day, but it would be an excellent free add-on.
- For a personalized signed copy, order directly* from Glen at glen@glenvanpeski.com. Glen accepts VENMO, so once he receives $25/per book ordered via VENMO, he will send a signed book, plus two mini-themed lip balms, in a custom mailer to the continental US address (or addresses) of your choice. *Include the address (or addresses) and name(s) to whom you want the book sent and personalized to in your email.
Learn more about Glen's book and writing: Glen Van Peski
Begin Your Heartlifter's Journey:
- Visit and subscribe to Heartlift Central on Substack. This is our new online coaching center and meeting place for Heartlifters worldwide.
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- Learn more about my books and work: Janell Rardon
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- Learn more about Young Living Therapeutic-Grade Essential Oils and the Aroma Freedom Technique: HEALINGFROMTRAUMA
This episode is sponsored in full by Heart Lift International, a 501c3 educational nonprofit dedicated to making home and family the safest, most secure place to be. To learn more about Heart Lift International or to make a tax-deductible donation, visit heartliftcentralcom and click on the donate button at the top of the page. Thank you in advance for making the reach of this podcast extend to the ends of the earth. Today, in honor of Father's Day, we have an amazing guest author, glenn Van Pesky. He's going to be sharing from his new book Take Less, do More surprising life lessons in generosity, gratitude and curiosity from an ultralight backpacker. According to research conducted by the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas, individuals who spend money on experiences tend to have greater in the moment happiness compared to those who focus on material items. This book is a must read. It's a must read and I just think it's perfect for Father's Day. As you know, heartlifters, we have a rare male guest here on this show, but I know that. I know I've already ordered one for the men in my life and I think you're going to want to order it not only for the men in your life but for yourself, because there are, as it says, surprising life lessons. I am so excited in this episode as you're going to tell. What a surprise, I know, but so much of what this book is offering resonates with where I am in my life right now. I just want to tell you a little bit about Glenn. Glenn is widely recognized by his trail name. I'm learning a lot about this culture Legend for his legendary contributions to the backpacking community.
Speaker 1:A native Californian with a childhood rooted in the western outdoors, glenn's journey into backpacking began when his oldest son joined the Scouts and he led the troops backpacking program. Through those experiences, he became intrigued by lightweight backpacking and he started sewing his own gear gear. In 1998, he founded Gossamer Gear, a company dedicated to manufacturing ultra-light backpacking equipment. Yes, it's a thing. Over the years, glenn and his company have been featured in Backpacker Outside National Geographic, adventure Magazines and the New York Times. Beyond his passion for backpacking and entrepreneurial success, glenn had an extended career in civil engineering and you'll be able to tell, you'll be able to see how these passions merged from, and I would say emerged from, his civil engineering brain. Most recently, he served as the Community and Economic Development Director for the city of Carlsbad, california, and you'll hear me get very excited because that's where Legoland is. Prior to spending nearly a decade in various roles with the city, he served as an engineering consultant. Before that role, glenn held the role of President of Pacific Rim Engineering, so he's been a civil engineer for a good four decades. He's a sought-after speaker. You're going to hear him talk about how he came to be a speaker.
Speaker 1:There's just so much jam-packed into this conversation I'm obviously going to have to break it up into two or three parts and you will get more of the private conversation over on our Substack home at Heart Lift Central. So if you haven't, stop right now and go subscribe to Heart Lift Central over on Substack, you do that the same way that you can make a tax-deductible donation through Heart Lift International by going to heartliftcentralcom. Go to the top of the page and you'll see the links for all these different things. I really want you to subscribe. There's a free and a paid subscription. You do what you can do, but I will be sharing more of my private parts of my conversations here and more of my private experiences in life and a lot more writing and different resources and additional podcasts on the private sub stack, which is the paid $50 a year. That all goes to support the podcast. So everything and anything that you can offer supports this work.
Speaker 1:Glenn has extensive backpacking experiences, including hiking most of the Pacific Crest Trail, exploring the backcountry in Japan and Europe and bikepacking along the Great Divide mountain bike route. He lives in Bend, oregon. We're going to talk a lot about Bend, oregon today and we're going to talk a lot about his lovely, remarkable wife of over 40 years we concluded it's almost 44, francie. So I feel like Francie is a part of our conversation and, as you will hear, she has a lot of wisdom to offer us as well. And he is the father of two grown sons. And he is the father of two grown sons.
Speaker 1:Heartlifters, grab your husband's sons or share it with all the men in your life, but buy this book for them. Order it today on Amazon and at the end of this I will tell you how you can order a signed copy from Glenn himself. You might not get it by Sunday, but you will get a signed copy. So you can just print off a cover of the book from his website or from Amazon and pack that up with a little bow and give that to hubby or son or nephews or grandsons, any male, you know, or any female, obviously. But we're celebrating Father's Day, so enough, enough, let's meet Glenn. Hello and welcome to today's Heart Lift with Janelle. Oh, my gosh, you hear me say this all the time, but I might be like triple excited. Today we have with us Glenn Van Pesky. I've already told you that, I've already told you all about him, and we have been talking it up before I hit record and I just can't. I can't handle it, glenn, welcome, thank you for being here.
Speaker 2:So excited to be here.
Speaker 1:So happy to have you here. Your message is so necessary, so vital, even for those of us who are not hiking the Himalayas or hiking the Pacific Crest Trail or the Appalachian Trail or all the other trails in the world. But your life lessons are right where I'm living personally. But your life lessons are right where I'm living personally. And I didn't get very far into the book before I read all of the endorsements because they are so good, and the one by Hannah Pryor. The first question in her writing said this who knew wisdom weighed so little? Who knew wisdom weighed so little? Hannah Pryor, you are a writer, rock star Number two. I mean the wisdom of that. I need you to answer that for me. She didn't answer it but I'm like who knew wisdom weighed so little? What does that mean to you when you?
Speaker 2:read it first when she sent you the endorsement. Well, my first thought was the same as yours Like wow, she's a really good writer.
Speaker 1:Yes, cause I mean, I used to teach writing a long time and my students would get so annoyed with how many times I made them rewrite the first sentence of a paper or a draft, because the first sentence is everything. Okay, who knew wisdom weighed so little?
Speaker 2:And I was impressed that she spun these off. I asked her. Well, I met her. There's a whole story about accidentally meeting her and having her over and becoming fast friends. Over a weekend that she randomly happened to be in bend doing something else, uh, with her. How was the random?
Speaker 1:meeting.
Speaker 2:I mean, I think god is not random, so so at the time I had a manuscript and I was trying to find a publisher and so I was talking to everyone I know. When I thought about it, I realized I have a lot of friends who are authors, so I talked to everybody and ended up talking. One of the people I talked to was Rohit at um idea press, and so he sent me a bunch of books from his authors, um, and he said oh, by the way, you know, here's a couple you could talk to to talk about their experience of publishing with us and he says randomly one of them, henna prior, whose book I think was just about to come out.
Speaker 2:She's going to be in Bend, which is like a hundred thousand people in the middle of Eastern Oregon.
Speaker 2:No one like comes to Bend for anything. But she was doing some training at Sun River Resort, which is close to Bend, and so I called her and said or emailed her something. Anyway. She said, yeah, we're getting in, you know, friday, whatever. And she said, yeah, we're getting in, you know friday, whatever. Um, and I said we talked about getting together for coffee or just a phone call. I didn't want to intrude on her weekend, that's very kind and ended up inviting her. It's like, well, you're going to be in bend, kind of, you have to go kind of by our place to get to sun river. Why don't you just come over for happy hour? You know we'll have a drink and chat.
Speaker 1:So anyway, I mean we hit it off, I bet.
Speaker 2:Ended up inviting her back. Tried to convince her to take my car because they didn't have any rental cars at the airport. Oh, and so she was Ubering it around. Oh, my, and you know, sun River is like a half hour drive. Yeah, and we have three cars and two drivers, so we river is like a half hour drive. Yeah, and we have three cars and two drivers, so we clearly have an extra car. Um, she couldn't. That's a bone of contention, she just couldn't like borrow receive the generosity random stranger she had just met.
Speaker 2:I don't know why I would have, but um, so uh, I invited her. We kind of corresponded over the weekend. I said, hey, sunday we're having some people over to make pizza in our new pizza oven. You know you want to come by? And she's like, no, no, no, you know it's your neighbors and I don't know. You know, I just met you. And then she finally decided yeah, we're just going to do it. And oh my gosh. Brave move, the neighbors are still talking about them, so anyway.
Speaker 1:I love that so much and she took some risk outside of her comfort zone. It sounds like to meet strangers and meet people like that. I mean that's so cool.
Speaker 2:Well, and that is the. Her book is all about awkward, you know being leaning into awkward risk.
Speaker 1:Ok, we got to get Hannah Pryor on here. Awkward, yeah, really good, yes, okay, we got to get Hannah Pryor on here. Awkward's, really good, yes, yeah, okay. So who knew wisdom weighed so little? And she wrote that because, as I have already said, you are the founder of Gossamer Gear. You are called the legend, which I know you do not like. Do not like in light. I don't know anything about this subculture of lightweight. What is it? Help me out here.
Speaker 2:Ultra light Ultra light backpacking.
Speaker 1:Ultra light backpacking. This is a foyer into a subculture. Once again, I love to learn, I have a voracious appetite. So when my husband and I, he really wanted me to go camping and we've camped, he would take the kids camping and then I went once, but then a few summers ago, it's like we were going to do a camping summer with tents, and so it was so funny in these campgrounds, because when you're standing in line at the shower and you know, people will turn around and go, oh, are you camp? Yeah, no, not really a camper, but oh, yeah, we're here and they're like, are you in a tent? And I'm like we're in a tent, and they go, oh, oh, okay, well, that won't last long.
Speaker 1:And so I just took it all in because it was such a subculture, you know, and I feel that way with ultralight backpacking. So I'm so eager to learn, not only about that subculture, or even that whole culture probably, but also the life lessons. So tell me, glenn, how that happened for you. I know that your son was a Boy Scout and you started working with the Boy Scouts, but fill in the rest of the blanks of how that went from Boy Scout camping guy dad to the owner of Gossamer Gear.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, and when you visit Bend, we can immerse you or dip your toe anyway, I can take you ultralight backpacking and you can see what it's like to hike in the middle of nowhere with a very light pack and have absolutely everything you need.
Speaker 1:I tell you my husband is going to love that I've had this conversation.
Speaker 2:husband is going to love that I've had this conversation. When you talked about camping when you, when you talked about camping and waiting in line for the shower, I'm just like, okay, well, that's not really camping it's. Yeah, I'll show you.
Speaker 1:I'm still like I think that's I'm getting way too excited and I think it's comical Cause I'm like I love Lucy in a campground but I'm gonna. I can just see our conversation tonight when I say we got invited to go ultralight ultralight backpacking on the pacific crest trail.
Speaker 2:It's gonna be great it's gonna go.
Speaker 1:You're not gonna do that, I'm gonna. Oh, I am gonna do it. Challenge taken. I don't have to shower, that's cool. I don't even have to wear makeup, I can just just.
Speaker 2:That's the great thing about it.
Speaker 1:I don't know I'm going to try it. I really want to try it. I'm challenged, okay.
Speaker 2:You, you will, you will enjoy it. Ultralight backpacking kind of started on the Pacific Crest Trail. It 50 miles from Mexico to Canada, through California, Oregon and Washington, and there aren't a lot of resupply places. It doesn't run through towns and things like that.
Speaker 2:So you know, you're doing longer distances and so obviously weight is a premium, and so people started figuring out how to go lighter. Ray Jardine wrote a book the Pacific C Pacific Crest Trail hikers handbook, talking about how to you know how he was making his own gear and going lightweight, and a buddy of mine read that and so I started making gear to get our load lighter, Cause you couldn't buy lighter stuff. I mean now you can buy light stuff from hundreds of ultralight cottage manufacturers. We got introduced to one the other day that wanted to chat with me.
Speaker 1:But this was what year? It was like 1998.
Speaker 2:So I started sewing gear, probably 95-ish.
Speaker 1:Okay, and you sew. We know you're an engineer.
Speaker 2:My mom was a believer that every kid should leave home knowing how to cook, bake and sew.
Speaker 1:Wow, are you serious? That's amazing.
Speaker 2:All three of us can do all three and do all three.
Speaker 1:That is amazing.
Speaker 2:In fact, we have three men in my family now three generations my dad, myself and our son Grant, who are all baking sourdough bread.
Speaker 1:I love this so much. This is so your mom. Is she still living? No, and that's a whole story too.
Speaker 2:But yeah, someone I was having a conversation yesterday and someone we're talking about the difference of bread in Europe Cause we just got back from biking in the Netherlands. They're talking to me about, well, um, you know, what kind of bed bread do you buy? And I'm like I bread, I bread. I don't buy bread, I make bread and it's fresh.
Speaker 1:I mean you buy bread every day, it's not like you, buy a loaf for the week. No, you just don't. And the bakeries are everywhere. So, yes, I may want to be European, for sure.
Speaker 2:Okay, we can bake sourdough when you're out here. I am ready After we're hiking on the Pacific Crest Trail.
Speaker 1:As long as I have carbs, if I have sourdough bread on the trail, I'll be fine. Just don't lose me and don't let bears get my bread. So, heartlifters, I told you this is going to be hard to focus because there's so much fun here. But, glenn, when you watch the video, go to his website. I gave you all that information. When you go to the website and watch the video, there's a video and you will see how heavy his son's backpack was. How heavy his son's backpack was. So you have this vision. Okay, you start making these, you start sharing them with people. Then how did that go into becoming a business? Because you're still working at this time, you've not yet retired. You have this're, you have this ultra light backpacking hobby.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was. It was always a hobby. I never took a salary from Gossamer Gear. I always did my engineering to pay the bills. Well, most of the time I paid the bills. So I got some inquiries.
Speaker 2:You know, after I put the, the plans on the Internet, got some inquiries from people like I don't know how to sew, and so I was talking this over with um west outfitters who actually uh, attended my launch party, you know, I mean I. So I've known them for it's sisters that have a, a business that sells gear to diyers, and you know their business business has really grown. But I used to get all my stuff from them and they said, well, we've got this trade publication and there's this guy on the West coast who you know is a cut and sew operation. You could talk to him. You know he's up in Seattle but it's like least close to you.
Speaker 2:So I called Monty and sent him up a pattern and a pack that I'd made um and on the phone he says, oh, yeah, yeah, we've made packs. You know, we know what we're doing. We've made them for big names jansport, yada, yada, yada and um. I sent him up the pack and and you know they kind of struggled with that, and I remember a conversation with him. He says he was Cambodian and he says uh, these not like other packs we've made. I go yeah, that's kind of the idea. He said his minimum order was a hundred and I thought I needed about 25. And then everyone who had you know who's asking me would have one and I could go back to the engineering without the distraction.
Speaker 2:And so we went back and forth and finally settled on 50 packs and I thought well, they'll be in the garage for the next five years, but you know I'll get rid of them somehow. So place an order for 50 packs, send them the fabric, and our son, brian, put together a rudimentary website that people could fill out an order form kind of name, an address Right, and it would send me an email. You know, I'm working on my engineering one day and I get an email. It's like order. You know, gvp gear. We didn't. I didn't bother naming it anything clever, Cause it was like I'm going to sell 25 packs, so I just used my initials and call it GVP gear.
Speaker 1:There you go.
Speaker 2:And so I get an email. I was like, oh, someone ordered some, what do I do? So I grabbed a yellow pad of paper which I still have.
Speaker 1:Oh, I love this.
Speaker 2:And wrote down like their name and at that time you had to mail a check in. Wrote down like their name and at that time you had to mail a check in. So I was like I was enough of a businessman. No, like, don't mail a pack until you get the check Exactly Right. So I would like there'd be a little. You know, I'd put the $70 in when the check arrived and then do a check mark when we shipped it out.
Speaker 1:Wow Ground floor, that was. That was Wow. Ground floor, that was the system, and then before.
Speaker 2:I even got the first shipment. We had 86 orders for 50 packs. I love that, so that's my first indication that this might not go the way that I was thinking it would go.
Speaker 1:That's exactly right, and I think that a lot of us, a lot of people listening, have ideas in their head that they think won't go anywhere. So, very first and foremost, I just want to encourage the creativity. First, the curiosity, because you're very much an advocate for curiosity, which we've been talking a lot about here lately Just being curious, you know, and how that develops into just great things. And then to take the initiative right, and I love that your mom taught you how to sew, like it's just so cool. It's like it just all came together and created this incredible new frontier into ultralight backpacking, which at the time, like you said, wasn't really a thing. So then, how did it go to Gossamer and where did the name Gossamer? So then, how did it go to Gossamer and where did the name Gossamer come from? Because I love a good Gossamer fog as a writer.
Speaker 2:So actually, Francie reminded me the other day that she was the one that came up with the idea for Gossamer Okay. The source of most good things in my life.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, we were just kicking around names because there was a point, I mean it grew. She was doing the shipping. Um, I was doing kind of all the processing the orders, responding to emails, and at one point we had a third party doing that and at that point it's like, okay, yeah, we got to come up with a better name than gvp gear here. It's like, clearly this is going to go a little longer than I thought didn't go a little bigger than I thought right, yeah, so we're kicking around names and francie says what about gossamer gear?
Speaker 2:you know, and gossamer is really light and still got the g thing going on got the alliteration yes, double g. So yeah, gosh mcgear was born oh, it's so good.
Speaker 1:So Gossamer gear is born, and then it is what? Where's it going next?
Speaker 2:Well, it almost dies. It gets to the point where I'm working 60 to 70 hours a week doing my civil engineering Along. This time we had a severely disabled son. Insurance rates went up, um, life was pretty crazy, and spending another 30 hours a week on gossamer gear yikes. So I'm young and tough, but even I can see this is not sustainable, right? Um, and since I was making good money as an engineer and I was not taking any money from the business, it was pretty clear which one had to go yes Around about this time. I met John Mackey, co-founder of Whole Foods Market, who just has his own book out, which is a good one the Whole Journey. He was interested. It was because I volunteered to be on the Pacific Crest Trail Association board and we were looking for new board members. I volunteered to be on the Pacific Crest Trail Association board and we were looking for new board members and another board member suggested hey, uh, why don't we approach John Mackey?
Speaker 2:That's so smart, super smart businessman, and he's a huge hiker, huge hiker very lightweight hiker, and I said he was John Mackey. Cause I didn't know who he was. And then they told me and cause I didn't shop at Whole Foods at that point? Um no, and I went back to my yellow pad of paper and saw that he had purchased a fair amount of gear for me. Um so he's a he's very light, hack, very strong hiker. His trail name is Strider, for a reason.
Speaker 1:So, cool.
Speaker 2:So he was kind of interested in meeting me. So we flew to. I flew with the executive director to Boulder. He spent some time there, when he's not in Austin, to pitch him on a board position and you know he listened politely and he, a couple of weeks later after that meeting, the executive director called me and said hey, you know, you're the connection you need to follow up with Mackie. So I called him and asked if he wanted to join the board and he said no, cause he's. I mean, he's super smart businessman, he's, he guards his time jealously.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I would think so.
Speaker 2:Which is how he can create, you know even when he's running a multi-billion dollar business, create six weeks a year to go hiking. Wow, very effective, very effective. So he declined to join. He made what was at the time the largest single donation to the PCTA and as we were hanging up I said oh, by the way, I'm going to close down Gossmer gear because I just can't do it. So if you want to buy anything, you know you had to do it in the next couple of weeks.
Speaker 1:Oh wow, Nothing in the forefront of your mind at all as to him saying what he's going to say next. No, I was just letting him know because I knew he liked, the gear Correct.
Speaker 2:And one thing about John is he has a keen analytical mind. He will. He makes split assessments in a fraction of a second. I've seen this multiple times.
Speaker 1:I love that.
Speaker 2:He'll listen to all this and go okay, here's the proposal, you know, we'll do this. This percent, that this many dollars, dot dot, dot dot dot Such a gift. In this case he was going out the door for a hike. So he said don't do anything until I call you back. So he called me back.
Speaker 1:I have my priorities, I'm going on, that's right, you're right.
Speaker 2:He called me back and at that point bought 75% of the company.
Speaker 1:That's incredible.
Speaker 2:He wanted me to remain engaged because of the creativity. Of course you know he thought that was important. He said I could be as involved or uninvolved as I had time and energy for. So you know I didn't see a downside and so he hired someone, put more money in. We moved operations to Austin and so you know he was single-handedly like one conversation. Gossamer Gear would be a footnote not even probably a footnote at this point, except for his own vested interest as well, he liked the products.
Speaker 1:obviously He'd used them. So I've read enough about you and enough in your book to know that that just wasn't winky dinks or coincidence or serendipity, whereas it was probably all of that, but more providence. I mean you're a man of God. Whereas it was probably all of that but more providence, I mean you're a man of God. So I mean, how do you frame that for us? Like just being faithful in the little, just being faithful to what you know, the next thing, and then just I don't know.
Speaker 2:Being prepared to let it go. You know I wasn't looking for someone to buy it. I wasn't making any money at it, so it didn't have any value to me. I was prepared to let it go and people would have to find some other way to get their gear. And part of it is saying yes and giving back. You know, because I said yes to volunteering time, that I barely had to be on the Pacific Crest Trail Association board.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, that's. That was an important, that was a step for that.
Speaker 2:You know that wouldn't have happened if, if Henry Shires, the board member who happened to know who John Mackey was, wasn't on the board, it wouldn't have happened, and so so many. It's such a thin thread that could have been broken at any one of a number of points.
Speaker 1:Yes, glenn, one of the most important things I really wanted to ask you examine everything you carry. I don't know why that hit me really hard today, but it is really where I am pitching my tent and spending a lot of time right now, not only vocationally but also in our stage of life, for Rob and I. But examine everything you carry, the weight of that, the wisdom that weighed so little, but this one weighed so much for me. I wrote how, like how do I do this? We've spent years and years amassing things, carrying a lot of things, and I've really been studying that word carry quite a bit, because I carry a lot of people on my shoulders and in my heart and in my brain and examine everything you carry. Can you just share some wisdom, please?
Speaker 2:Sure, in a backpacking sense, it starts with cataloging everything. In fact, I just uh, yesterday, sunday afternoon, um, after church, was giving a presentation to a local chapter of women who explore, which is a great organization for getting women, you know, the tools and the confidence to get outside and do their own adventures without waiting for a guy to take charge, and and there's just, there's love it. It's a different trip with other women than mixed trip, for sure. So we went through kind of the steps in lightening your pack, because that was obviously about the only thing I'm qualified to talk about. So the first thing is that, like, actually pull out every single individual item in your kit and weigh it. Most people are surprised, one by how many things there are and two by how, when you take a lot of things that don't weigh very much, it adds up.
Speaker 1:It does Like a suitcase. This is very parallel to travel light to me, which I have desperately been trying to do for decades and I cannot get it. And then it just feeds over into. I think it speaks a lot to women, because women just carry a lot on their shoulders shoulders you, you weigh it and then you have to consider the function of it you know, is the function worth the weight?
Speaker 2:Um, and one of the first things you can look for in a backpacking sense, but I think it has applications to life in general is looking for dual use right, yeah, and this, especially like in travel packing. Um, you know francy's like the master of this, um, but I have. You know, my pot that I carry backpacking is made out of a beer can fostered beer can. So it's aluminum super light. That's also my cup for drinking. It's also my plate for drinking.
Speaker 1:It's also my plate for eating.
Speaker 2:It's also you know, storage for the stove, so it's you know it's multiple use. So when you have one item that can do multiple uses, that means you can leave the other items out of your life and then the other is finding lighter materials. Well before that, I usually tell people to look for less stuff, take less stuff. So there's things that you might not need or might not need as much of. So, for instance, like this was a problem with the Boy Scouts They'd show up with like an eight ounce tube of sunscreen. Okay, well, we're gone for a weekend, You're not going to go through eight ounce tube of sunscreen. Like okay, well, we're gone for a weekend, You're not going to go through eight ounce sunscreen.
Speaker 1:Mom put that in that. Yeah, that was mom.
Speaker 2:And sometimes it's you know, it's what they had.
Speaker 1:Sure.
Speaker 2:But you really have to look at, you know, are you taking enough for the anticipated conditions?
Speaker 1:Oh, that's very important. Anticipated conditions Okay, I'm listening between the lines.
Speaker 2:So true in life too. Like you know what are the anticipated conditions.
Speaker 1:So we're examining everything we carry. I wrote down some of these things, because you also have these written down Expectations.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so a lot of people. When they want to go camping or experience the outdoors, you know they are looking to duplicate their experience at home, but just in a different location, and that's how you end up with a 40 foot class, a motor home. And so if you're trying to duplicate that experience, but if you can embrace and the thing is with trying to duplicate that experience is ironically you don't get the benefits that you could from wilderness. You know you can't go off pavement. You're not experiencing it because you're sitting under your patio or you're sleeping on your bed, the awning.
Speaker 2:You're not seeing the stars Right? You're not getting the real benefits of forest bathing. You're just at home in a different location.
Speaker 1:That's very, very true Ouch. So if you're willing to, adjust your expectations and go.
Speaker 2:No, gonna experience the wilderness, and yes, it's gonna be. My bed's gonna be different than it is at home, but I'm gonna figure out how to get a good night's sleep on that new bed. And in compensation for figuring that kind of thing out, I'm gonna be drinking out of a beer can instead of my nice ceramic mug but in exchange for all those, I am going to be at one with the wilderness. I am going to be healing myself, because I'm away from wi-fi and my cell phone doesn't get coverage.
Speaker 2:Oh, we haven't talked about that and there isn't anyone else there, wow, and I just have time and I can't do anything on my to-do list. I can't work on my podcast, I can't work on my book because I'm in the middle of nowhere. Silence so all I do is have time to think and ponder and be grateful and figure things out and think of people and pray.
Speaker 1:It just sounds amazing, you know, I think in my mind of when I prep for a mission trip, right, it's kind of the same mindset, like going to Kenya I want to take everything with me that I think is going to duplicate home, but at the end of the day it's not going to duplicate home. So it I think it is it safe to say that there just is a huge learning curve here, you know, and there has to be a a commitment to coming outside of our comfort zone. I mean, there's just no way I am realistic that the girl here loves glamping Okay, it's just the way it is. I love a good five star, but if I put on a mindset like we've been talking a lot about you know how healing nature is it's something very important to me right now to heal my body and this is pretty much a free gift to ourselves if we'll allow ourselves to come outside of our comfort zones and be uncomfortable and be curious.
Speaker 2:Yes, have to, you don't have to do it instead of the five star you can still. No, you can still do five star. I mean, we like luxury cruises as much as this person but, and a lovely home. And yes, all of those things.
Speaker 1:Oh, heartlifter. Wow, there's so much inside of Glenn's story and inside of his book, so it is with a high recommendation that I really say to get his work and to read it and go to his website, because it is just packed with blogs that are rich and delicious to read. You can find him at glenvanpeskicom G-L-E-N-V-A-N-P-E-S-K-I dot com so rich. One of the things I am taking away from this part of the conversation is to examine everything I'm carrying. Examine everything I'm carrying, and so I'm extending that invitation to you, I'm extending that challenge to you to examine everything you're carrying, and in doing so, you're going to examine the story that you're telling yourself, which is lesson 14 in his book Take Less, do More. They really go hand in hand, because the story that I am telling myself might be a very, very heavy backpack, and sometimes it's what we're used to carrying. So when we take it off, it feels almost like I need to put that back on, because I don't know who I am if I'm not carrying all of this weight, if I'm not carrying all of this trauma, these emotions, these sad stories. Who am I if I'm happy you know what I say here. Happy can be very hard. It's part of the greatest challenge in moving through your heart lifting journey is to take on a whole new world of joy and joy building and happiness. I'm right there. Just two days ago, my therapist who I've only this is now only my sixth visit with him said to me Janelle, it's time for a corrective narrative. And I was like again, wow. And he proceeded to do it for me and it was really beautiful. He just looked through his lens of clarity that he has the privilege of having on his side of the desk and spoke a corrective narrative into being, and he encouraged me then to say it back to him and it was a very, very beautiful exercise. So I will be writing more about that and I will be sharing that with you over on Substack, our online community, heart Lift Central. I will share some of it in the free subscription part, but the deeper parts will go into the paid subscription. It's $50 a year or $5 a month, and every bit of that goes to producing and managing this podcast and all of my writing and essays and resources for you. So please stop right now what you're doing and go over and sign up for my sub stack, and you can do that on heartliftcentralcom.
Speaker 1:I would like to read just a bit from the introduction before we go our way. It's about a seven minute walk to my new job as a dishwasher at the Amazing Sparrow Bakery in the Northwest Crossing neighborhood of Bend Oregon. Yes, I totally forgot to talk to Glenn about this dishwashing job that he is currently. This is his job right now and he doesn't need this job, but he works at Sparrow Bakery. Come on, heartlifters. The name of this bakery is Sparrow and you know how much we have been talking about Jesus's favorite bird with Aaron Lydum, the sparrow, and just all of the beautiful life lessons the sparrow gives us. So I just think that was serendipitous and so beautiful that the bakery he is dishwasher at is called Sparrow Bakery. It's in the Northwest Crossing neighborhood of Bend, oregon. I know it sounds crazy.
Speaker 1:He writes especially for someone recently retired, but I took a part-time dishwasher job there as a way to connect to my new community, remembering that he and his wife, francie, have moved from San Diego, california, and retired in Bend Oregon. This is just an amazing story. They were having trouble finding someone for the position and so I thought why not? The place is always filled with interesting young people and has a great vibe.
Speaker 1:One of the principles that's guided my life, he writes, is to step up when or if no one else does, and I feel drawn to the venture. What have I got to lose? Wow. My wife, francie, and I have been living in this magnificent corner of the Pacific Northwest for less than a year, and the beauty of the place still takes my breath away. As I hike through this delightfully crisp mid-morning, I'm filled with gratitude for the life I'm living. That is another of my core principles Be grateful. So I leave us again with the challenge to examine the life that we're living, examine the load that we're carrying, examine the story we are telling ourself, engage in a corrective narrative and I'll guide you in that over on Substack Heart Lift Central and finally, to have gratitude for the life we're living. I want to hear from you. I can't wait to see what God whispers in your ear, until next time.
