Broken Open to Growth – A Lesson From The Andes

Sep 7

SEPTEMBER 8, 2025

Meeting the unknown and uncomfortable strips us down so we can meet parts of ourselves we didn’t know were there. When we open our hearts in those moments, connection, peace, love and strength show up in ways we never expected.

Step into one place this week you’ve been avoiding: the hard conversation, the scary decision, the new beginning. Stay long enough to see what rises.

This summer, we stepped away from writing blogs to reconnect with why we do this work: purpose, values, mission. Not in superficial ways, but in deeply personal ways to make sure they were reanimated and truly living inside of us.

Now, I have many stories from this summer – peaks over 14,000 feet in Colorado, the No Matter What Adventure Retreat we ran in Peru, trekking the Dolomites, business wins (and losses) and conversations I’ll never forget. Climbing mountains outside and in…

But I want to start our conversation back together with something that Birame Sock, who joined us on the No Matter What Adventure Retreat to Peru, wrote on the Inca Trail on our way to Machu Picchu.

It’s raw. It’s honest. And it captures what these journeys are really about: not reaching the summit, but discovering what rises within us when we’re stripped of comfort and certainty.

I could write essays about growth through discomfort (and I have), or cite research on resilience (and I do), or share stories from our adventures (and we will). But sometimes, the truest way to touch the experience is through art, through words that come not from the head, but from the heart.

So as we return from summer, instead of more advice, I’d like to offer you this poem as a reflection of what’s possible when we meet ourselves in the unknown:

Somewhere in the Andes

By Birame Sock

The world looks at me, but I look down,

Trying to catch my breath,

Trying to ground my feet,

Trying to slow my pounding heart.

I want to make sense of it all.

But the wind cuts through me,

Washing away the worry,

And the sun whispers: It will all be okay.

Still, I wonder.

The wind grows stronger, colder

It tears through my face,

Splintering my soul into fragments.

I stop.

I need to breathe.

Breathe. Breathe, I tell myself.

I look up, searching for the sun,

Hoping it will rescue me.

It’s there, so close, yet I can’t touch it.

The mountain beside me aches for light,

Longing to reflect it on those who need it most.

I am just one soul.

The wind howls now.

My fingers curl tightly around the one walking stick keeping me upright.

I feel alone,

Standing in the belly of the earth,

Where Mother Earth meets the mother of them all.

I cry her name.

But the wind, so heavy, so cold.

Swallows my voice.

No one hears me.

I’m alone. The answer lives in me.

But I can’t breathe.

I need to breathe.

Not for me, but for her.

And then,

I hear her voice.

A hum, soft and steady, carried by the wind.

“Mamma… I love you!”

The wind wraps it around me, louder now, holding me.

I catch my breath.

Warmth floods in.

“Baby, I love you too.”

One step.

That’s all I need to take to reach this place I had never visited but always longed for.

I look down again.

But this time, I am not afraid.

I am ready.

Ready to conquer my fears.

Ready to break through the walls I spent so many years building.

Ready to face the next chapter of this story that has yet to be written.

But I know now, I am not alone.

The living souls, the angels.

They were here all along,

Waiting for me to open my hand

And ask for the help I never knew I needed.

Waiting for me to open my heart,

To receive a love I never believed I deserved.

Here I am.

Naked, yet warm.

Broken, yet standing strong.

Weakened, yet overflowing with love.

Gratitude pulsing through me

For the life I was given,

For the strength I’ve carried,

For the angels who have protected me,

Even when I forgot how to believe.

And now,

I shall walk forward

Along this uncharted path.

Not afraid of what’s to come.

But filled with wonder

For what’s about to become.

Overwhelmed, yes.

But in awe of this journey

That has taught me

That I am more than enough.

That I can fall, and still rise.

That I can do it all,

No matter what.

When I read this, I’m reminded of something psychologist Carl Rogers once said: “What is most personal is most universal.”

Birame’s struggle to breathe, to steady herself, to find the strength for one more step… it’s not just her story. It’s ours. We all know what it’s like to feel swallowed by fear, to be alone, to wonder if we can keep going. And we also know the relief when love – whether through people, nature, or spirit – finds us in the middle of that struggle.

This is why we create these experiences. Not just to check off bucket-list hikes, but to reconnect people with what’s real: the resilience already in them, the community waiting to support them, and the deeper love and growth that’s always available when we dare to open our hearts.

As we start back up this fall, consider this your invitation:

You don’t have to climb a mountain to find this breakthrough. But you do have to be willing to step into the unknown. That’s where the real growth begins.

Key Idea

Growth doesn’t come from avoiding pain, it comes from walking through it. Meeting the unknown and uncomfortable strips us down so we can meet parts of ourselves we didn’t know were there. When we open our hearts in those moments, connection, peace, love and strength show up in ways we never expected.

Takeaway

Step into one place this week you’ve been avoiding: the hard conversation, the scary decision, the new beginning. Stay long enough to see what rises.

Build your Movement

Where in your life are you being invited to take just one more step?