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Author and meditator Gail Storey hiked the Pacific Crest Trail with her husband Porter Storey
(Note: below is a summary, not the entire transcript of the interview)
Gail Storey has meditated since the seventies, and has also authored 3 books. The Lord’s Motel, was praised by the New York Times Book Review as, “a tale of unwise judgments and wise humor.” Her second novel, God’s Country Club, was a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Selection. She has won numerous awards, and her fiction, poetry, and essays have been widely published.
The book that is relevant to the Meditation Freedom podcast, and in which she talks about her experiences with meditation, mindfulness as well as perhaps the most awesome trails in the US, called the pacific crest trail, is a memoir called, I Promise Not to Suffer: A Fool for Love Hikes the Pacific Crest Trail. The book won a number of awards, the National Outdoor Book Award, Colorado Book Award, Nautilus Silver Award, and Barbara Savage Award from Mountaineers Books. It was praised by Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild, as “Witty, wise and full of heart.”
I Promise Not to Suffer: A Fool for Love Hikes the Pacific Crest Trail is the hilariously harrowing story of Gail and Porter’s hike of the 2,663-mile trail from Mexico to Canada over the highest mountains of California, Oregon, and Washington. In their fifties, they carried Porter’s homemade ultralight gear to climb and descend twenty miles a day, trudge across the searing Mojave Desert, kick steps up icy slopes in the High Sierra, and ford rapids swollen with snowmelt. Through the permeable layer between self and nature, they walked deeply into the wilderness of love, and the question Who am I?
A former administrative director of the University of Houston Creative Writing Program, Gail now writes, hoopdances, and jumps out of cakes, not necessarily at the same time.
She writes:
“I have a hunger to hike the whole trail” , Porter (Gail’s husband asked her), “It’s been growing in me for years, intensified by the work with people living their dying. But what keeps you going?” [Gail writes] For once I was at a loss for words. What wanted me out here? Not my body, it was falling apart. Not my thoughts, alternately confident and doubtful. Certainly not my emotions, unreliable in their swings from high to low. I wanted to be with Porter, yes, but even more, I felt inseparable now from the vast green and blue and white of the wilderness. I looked out on the lake, shimmering under the moon. I was as sturdy as the trees. I flowed over obstacles like water over rocks. I was as solid as the mountains, as clear as the sky. The wind blew through my heart. I was what knew the wind. What knew the world was here in me, pulsing in the trees, water, rocks, mountains, moon
Questions asked in the interview with Gail Storey
I’d like to start with how you got started on a meditation path, what prompted you to start thinking of doing a meditation practice? and why Buddhism?
You did some long retreats, how did those retreats and practice help you in our daily life?
Moving on to a different type of meditative retreat, let’s talk about your book, “I promise not to suffer, A fool for love hikes the Pacific Crest Trail”.
When you and your husband Porter where thinking about this epic trip along the Pacific Crest Trail, you were initially not totally thrilled with spending time in nature, as you say on the first page of your book, you “never much cared for nature, or rather, thought it OK, as long as it stays outside”. Was it the sense of your own mortality, as well as the circumstances (Porter quitting his job) or also those years of practice influence your decision to join your husband? (since you couldn’t join him on the Appalachian Trail).
Besides spending alone time, and relief from stresses of career, was it also nature that was calling you?
As you went further down the PCT, your relationship with nature changed…
You also mentioned that you wanted to fully experience each moment, instead of the endless “Cartesian chatter” as you call it.
You wanted (as you mention on page 94) the wilderness to make such claims on my body that my thoughts would settle like silt on the bottom of a lake.
Maybe you can describe a bit the experience you had on the trail, starting with suffering. As the book said, you made a distinction between pain and suffering. Explain what you mean with that to the audience.
Where you no longer had a clear sense of inside/outside. Where your persona, your face (as you say), everything dropped away, and your relationship or identification with nature transformed.
How has this affected your sense of authenticity?
Your husband Porter called it a vision quest, what was the main insight he got from this trip?
Resources
You can find out more about Gail:
- Gail’s web site: http://www.gailstorey.com/
- Gail’s books:
- Other book mentioned: Wild
- Gail Storey’s blog: http://www.gailstorey.com/blog
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/GailStorey
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gail.storey.7
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/Gailstorey
- Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/gailstorey/
If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider leaving a quick review on iTunes!
Thank you so much,
Sicco
Thanks very much for interviewing me, Sicco! You’re a highly gifted interviewer with original and profound insights into meditation and its dimensions. I look forward to following your other podcasts, which I’m sure will reach a wide and receptive audience.
You are most welcome, and thank you for sharing your story so wholeheartedly!
A lovely new look into some of the deeper aspects of your wonderful book, Gail. So nice to touch into the expansiveness of being in the wilderness, and feel that soul soaring freedom again, from the comfort of my own home.
Thank you, Andi. I value your perspective, especially since you yourself have been through so many challenges and your own soul has found freedom through it.
Thanks for sharing Gail.
I couldn’t imagine hiking the Pacific Crest Trail but I love the way you use hiking and meditation. I can understand that completely!
The Trees Don’t Care 😉
Jill, yes, such a deep resonance between hiking and meditation!
So, who are you now, Gail?
Jules, yes, “Who am I?” is a question I love living my way deeper into.
Perfect timing, as I’m on my way to view the movie “WIld.” Eager to pick up your book now, Gail!
Thanks, Susanna! I hope you enjoy the movie “Wild” and my book too!
An inspiring and honest interview. Thanks, Gail, and thanks, Sicco Rood, for creating and sharing this!
Rivvy, thank you. And I deeply appreciate your inspiring and meditative book, RECIPES FOR A SACRED LIFE.
Thank you Rivvy, for checking this interview out! Much appreciated.
Gail makes meditation real and not some impossible practice done by others. She looks at how we can be both focused in depth and conscious about the here and now.
Marian, I hope you get a chance to listen to the other interviews on Sicco’s podcast, Meditation Freedom. The focus is on meditation and daily life, each interview different but all inspiring, original, and from the heart.
Not many people can combine being warm and breezy with being profound, the way you do. A most enjoyable interview.
Ina, thank you, it takes one to know one!
I always enjoy listening to you, Gail — your sense of humor and natural inclination to “go deeper” are such contrary but wonderful qualities. Thank you!
Page Lambert
Connecting People with Nature. Connecting Writers with Words.
Page, what a wonderful comment. I do love the sacred and outrageously funny dimensions of life! I’m a huge fan of your own writing and sense of the sacred.
Wonderful interview! Highly recommend a listen, just like I highly recommend Gail’s incredible and inspiring book!
Thanks, Tanja, and for the shout-out about I Promise Not to Suffer: A Fool for Love Hike the Pacific Crest Trail. I very much admire your own book which is sure to be of help to many.
My mind is always going. I used to think meditation was about quieting the mind, but I discovered that it’s more like just observing what comes up and letting it pass along. Not always an easy practice for me. Snorkeling for me, is like meditation.
Thanks.
What a brilliant observation, Debra, about meditation being like simply observing what comes up. The focus of other interviews on Sicco Rood’s excellent podcast series, Meditation Freedom, is often about just the mindfulness you point to. And I love to snorkel too!
Thank you for this wonderful interview. I recently re-read Gail’s book and loved it again. It’s an incredible adventure (hard to believe the physical aspects, not to mention the spiritual) and the book is a joy and a pleasure to read. My husband loved it too.
So glad you and your husband both enjoyed my interview with Sicco, Shelly, and also I Promise Not to Suffer: A Fool for Love Hikes the Pacific Crest Trail. Warm wishes for the continued deepening of your own life.
I loved Gail’s insights and joy in telling her story. A pleasure to listen to!
Very much appreciate your comment, Indira, especially in light of your own meditation background, your teaching at Naropa, and your wonderful writing and books.
Richly profound observations on our relationship with Nature and how that changes and deepens us, probably most when we are aware of the interaction. Gail’s courage is inspirational and her insights grounded and helpful.
Barbara, so true that Nature changes and deepens us. Thanks for your lovely comment.
Gail: You’re truly an inspiration!! Every time I hear you tell your story I’m entranced. Love your nature/hiking/meditating practice!
Laurel, you’re an ongoing inspiration to me with your insightful perspectives on all the places you travel and write about!
Where are your answers?
Hi Nell, I have not yet been able to transcribe the interviews word for word. I may just have to do with summaries for now. Hope that answers your question!
Wonderful to hear your vivid voice, Gail, talking about your adventures, “internal” and “external.” Much love to you and to Porter as y’all embark on your next big challenge!
Heidi
Heidi, I’ll never forget your insight and kindness in telling me I was “a ripe plum ready to drop into the arms of Buddhism.” I deeply admire your work teaching mindfulness practice in prisons. And I’m still grateful for the sitting bench you gave me!
Thank you for this insightful interview. Gail Storey was refreshing, clear, and utterly articulate in discussing her experience on the trail and how it informed her practice and enriched her life. She captured the essence of a Buddhist practice and how it illuminates interbeing–total interconnection. I hung on every word.
Carol Grever
Your own practice inspires me very much, Carol. I’m in awe of how beautifully your Buddhist practice helped you respond with compassion to your husband’s coming out, and how helpful your books and poetry have proven to be to so many.
From “ripe plum” to Unimaginable Treasure—so much grace and so many gifts, from you to us all. Thaaaaank you.
Love, love,
Kathleen
Kathleen, your living so close to Mother Earth is meditation as a way of life. I admire you and your gifts and book enormously!
Gail you are a ripe plum!! Interesting insights.
Love to talk with you about the loving/ kindness practice.
Right back atcha, ripe plum Marylee! Would love to talk with you about lovingkindness practice. You’re a natural with your warmth and openheartedness.
Your commitment to the practices of mindfulness and loving kindness provided the perfect vehicle to transition from “not my idea of fun…” to “permeable layer between self and nature.” I Promise Not to Suffer is a wonderful read full of humor, truth and personal growth, but the interview took me so much further into the deeper realms of Oneness that a journey like yours can evoke. Thank you so much for sharing so freely and authentically.
Thanks for your comments Barbara!
Gail! thoroughly enjoyed this interview. Thank you for making my evening more meaningful. I too, learned TM in the 70’s. I studied Buddhism academically and thought it was the most sensible religion around so promptly ignored it for 10 years! You articulated so well the process on the trail. I was drawn to Vispassna because I suspected it was a ‘shortcut’ to the mind/body states possible on a long trail. The joke’s on me of course; it’ll take the rest of my life. I really like your gratitude attitude about aging joints, etc. Beautiful! I’ve kept a gratitude diary whilst away from home working. Hope you can come do a book signing in GJ some time maybe coupled with a day long meditation with our teacher Susie Harrington. Know it might be awhile before you see this. Enjoy the energy of the ‘divide’ trail as you do walking meditation, hiking meditation and driving meditation. hugs,
Mary M
Thanks so much for commenting Mary!