I shared this a year ago but it somehow feels even truer now. ⠀
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The thing about growing closer with someone is that you can’t do so without surrendering yourself. All of the little pieces of you that much of the world never gets to see have to, at some point, come out of hiding. You have to be ugly, and that’s the beauty of it all. ⠀
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You have to fall on your face snowboarding down a mountain. You have to admit that you’re scared of highball bouldering problems. You have to break down about your dog having a bad day. You have to pee in the woods, or in a bag (long story). You have to get hangry after 8 hours of climbing. You have to cry about cold and fatigue and soreness and often, nothing at all. ⠀
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And what happens is this: the universe makes a deal with you. ⠀
If, or when, you can surrender those notions of self and let yourself be, as is, you get these beautiful relationships that grow out of the ugliness. You get people who you were sure you’d scare away after the first hike or climb or bike or skin or camp, but who instead laugh it all off with you and stick around. You get people who text you to tell you what a good job you did, AS you were texting them to apologize for slowing them down. ⠀
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You get people who somehow maybe don’t even see the ugly as ugly. I’ll take that trade-off any day. 📸: @kammitchellphoto