Windham High Peak and Burnt Knob via Route 23

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Windham High Peak and Burnt Knob via Route 23



The view from Burnt Knob was calling me today, so I took a break from my project to answer that call, and I wasn’t disappointed. The trail was as breathtaking as the viewpoints, although the leaves made it slippery—especially on the bushwhack to the summit of BK. The Peck Rd. lot was full so I opted for the route from 23. 

On my walk, I was thinking about something that happened Friday afternoon. I haven’t communicated with my ex wife in any way since 2018. But for a long time, I thought I was fully healed from my divorce because I no longer thought about her. My ego still felt she was too dangerous to engage with despite her desperate attempts to contact me. 

Concurrently, I’ve been feeling like some part of me is trapped and desperate to be freed. During meditation I kept thinking back to those scenes from Pink Floyd’s The Wall where Pink is slamming himself against a stone enclosure trying to find a way out and also where the animated face bursts forth from the wall in a scream. Lines from Robert Frost’s poem “Mending Wall” also came to mind. 


I asked the universe to help free this part of me and a situation arose where I needed to contact my ex for something. I had my mom do it, but my ex responded immediately and took care of what she needed to do. Something told me to reach out and thank her, which I did, and she in turn responded with a sweet message. 


Now, while I still deem her too dangerous to communicate with any further, that simple act relieved a lot of emotional baggage. It felt like when you take your ski boots off at the end of a long day. As an experienced skier you don’t even realize that the boots are constricting you that much because you’re so used to it, but when you free them you notice how confined you were. 


I don’t think forgiveness is something you can force. I had to go through many years of pain and climbing mountains to heal this and get to the point where I could override my ego enough to to even say thanks. But that small gesture created a huge shift in my lightness of being. 


Today’s IPAs were Mango Bombogenesis by @chathambtewing (9/10) and Mega Boss IPA (7/10).





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