Mois : janvier 2017

« The Thai language use jai or heart to generate meaning in many contexts. The Thai language speaker is raised to understand that jai is a word with hundreds of shadings, an ever-present force within daily language. It is an evocative word that echoes with a sense of emotion. (…) In general, feelings are counted more than reason.  » 

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« Le langue thai utilise jai ou coeur pour générer différentes significations dans de nombreux contextes. La personne qui parle Thai est instruite à comprendre que le coeur est un mot avec des centaines de dégradés, une force présente  dans le language courant. En général, les émotions comptent  plus que la raison »

 

Today a French basejumper asked my climbing buddy Thor to assist him in his process to basejump. He lightly injuried his shoulder last time he climbed up on the cliff and as today was his last day in Tonsai he wanted to jump a last time, but he needed help to carry his gear up. So instead of going climbing this afternoon I joined them on the way up. The climb in the jungle was beautiful. I was happy I brought my climbing shoes – thank for the advise Ari – because it was more a 5a-5c climb that a hike. I enjoy to learn to « read » the wall as Christophe advised me and to climb technically and smooth. After maybe 1 hour of effort, arrived up on the cliff, the view was worth it. 120 m above Tonsai, view on the ocean and beach. Christophe began to prepare his material he just told us not to talk to him, to give him time to be focus. Then he was ready to jump. The minute before the jump was intense. Thor told him « good luck » and his answer was « No.  It’s nothing about luck in basejump. Everything is prepared. You can say me enjoy the jump if you want ». Ok, so enjoy the jump my friend. We saw him repeat the movement of opening the parachute, breathe slowly. We could feel how intense was his concentration. I was with him. And then he jumped. The parachute open and he landed gracefully. In 4 seconds maybe he was down. And Thor and I still have to downclimb. It was a news experience for me and I really loved it; maybe with an exception for the moment it began to rain and everything was sliding and muddy. We finally arrived down safe and happy, and just had time to see Christophe before he left Tonsai. 

Climbing is not easy. Specially when you lead climbing, what means you don’t have the rope above you but below you. And you learn that the fear of falling is irrational. Because even if you fall until the last bolt, the rope is here and will take you. So you learn to focus on the climbing and not on the fall. You learn to make your decisions based on your observations and sensations and not about the fear. Interesting. Not only in climbing but even in the real life.

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Grimper est un sport difficile. En particulier lorsque tu grimpes en tête ce qui signifie que tu n’as pas la corde au-dessus de toi mais en-dessous. Et tu apprends que la peur de tomber est  irrationelle; car meme si tu tombes à la hauteur du dernier spit, la corde est l la et elle va te retenir. Alors tu apprends à mettre ton attention sur la grimpe et non sur la chute. Tu apprends à prendre des décisions basées sur tes observations et tes sensations et non sur ta peur. Intéressant. Pas seulement en escalade, mais aussi dans la vrai vie.

What to do in a climber place when your shoulder hurts and that you have to take a couple of rest days? And when you feel down because you just had a couple of bad news from some of your friends at home? My way to find inner peace again was to hang out at the coffee shop with my friends from here, with the Kittens, and learn thai, and laugh, and read fairytales. I discovered Doctor Seuss fairytale « Oh! The Places You’ll go ». Baby cat’s cute face also just make me remember that life is stronger than everything and that you can find joy in so many little things. Don’t let the difficulties of life make you forget that; keep hope and still accept that for some people life will stay dark, forever. 

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Que faire dans dans un endroit pour grimpeur quand ton épaule te fais mal et que tu dois prendre quelques jours de repos? Et que tu te sens pas au meilleur de ta forme car tu viens de recevoir des mauvaises nouvelles de tes amis au pays? Pour moi la solution aura été de traîner au café avec mes amis d’ici et les chatons et faire ma leçon de thai et découvrir un nouveau conte: « Oh! Tous ces Endroits Ou Vous Irez » unclassique du docteur Seuss. Et la bouille à croquer et les idioties des chatons me rappellent juste que la vie est plus forte que tout et qu’on peut trouver de la joie même dans des toutes petites choses. Malgré tout, le monde est quand même beau écrivait Jean d’Ormesson. Garder espoir et pourtant accepter même l’inacceptable.

When I arrived in Tonsai, close to my bungalow I discovered a yoga studio. This one was just open 2 weeks ago, by volunteers, donation based. So I began to teach in the morning to complete the teacher staff and joined anther Alex, Maddie, Nate and Brian. It was amazing to teach with those guys and to play also acroyoga. The studio was soon a place where people use to chill out, to meet during the day, and climbers are really good students and everytime enthousiasts to discover new practices.

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En arrivant à Tonsai j’ai découvert près de mon bungalow un studio de yoga. Celui ci venait justement d’ouvrir 2 semaines plus tôt, un projet mené par des volontaires et sur donations. J’ai ainsi commencé à enseigner le matin pour compléter l’équipe de profs de yoga et ai rejoins une autre Alex, Maddie, Nate et Brian. Une super expérience que d’enseigner avec ces américains et aussi de faire de l’accroyoga.  Le studio est rapidement devenu un endroit où les gens ont pris l’habitude de passer du temps et de se retrouver, et les grimpeurs se sont révélés être des élèves assidus et enthousiastes, toujours prêts à découvrir de nouvelles pratiques.

Lien YouTube Flower of Life yoga studio acroyoga sequence Alex and Nate