My Anywhere But Here Blog

Dreams That Don’t Let Go of Us

When the soul continues to reach beyond what life allows

It honors the dream without requiring it to be fulfilled.

Some dreams quietly fade with time.

Others… never leave.

No matter how life shifts, no matter what becomes realistic or not —

they remain, steady and persistent, somewhere deep within us.

I have always been fascinated by people who feel the call of the wild.

A wild, nomadic kind of living —

one where they plan a journey of a lifetime, not for recognition,

but to prove they can feed a restless soul that believes anything is possible.

Nothing feels too far out of reach for them.

From a climber I follow, Alex Honnold — an American rock climber best known for his free solo ascents of big wall climbing routes — I have watched what it means to move beyond fear.

His climb of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, without ropes, was described as one of the greatest athletic feats of any kind.

Or another woman I have deeply admired, Junko Tabei.

The first woman to reach the summit of Mt. Everest, she overcame incredible obstacles along the way. During her climb, her team was struck by an avalanche. She was buried under snow and briefly lost consciousness — yet remarkably recovered and continued the ascent just days later.

She became a symbol of quiet strength, breaking barriers in a world that had not made space for her — and then went on to climb the Seven Summits.

There is a dream that has lived quietly inside me for many years.

Not loud… not demanding… but never leaving.

My soul longs to trek to Mt. Everest.

It longs to go down a mountain at 40 miles an hour…

to jump from a helicopter into the backcountry…

to know what it feels like to climb freely to a summit.

I am drawn to those who live on that edge —

those who step into the unknown where risk and wonder exist side by side.

I cannot fully explain why it thrills me…

only that it does.

You don’t always have to climb the mountain… sometimes you can feel it through someone else’s descent.

Through films like The Art of Flight, Claim, and All I Can,

I have watched these lives unfold —

the silence of the peaks, the risk, the awe.

These stories allow you to borrow the journey…

to stand in places your feet may never reach.

I have even been in a helicopter once, flying over Niagara Falls.

Perhaps I hoped it would quiet that part of me —

the daredevil heart that now has to remain still because of COPD.

But whatever I hoped that moment might give me…

it did not diminish the dream.

• To walk where the air thins and the world quiets
• To stand in a place far removed from everything ordinary
• To imagine myself high on El Capitan, climbing freely
• To hear the Sherpas conserving their breath as they call warnings ahead

And yet…

I know it is not a journey I will take.

Not because the desire is not real —

but because the life I am living does not make space for it.

Perhaps what makes the longing stronger…

is that I have watched someone I know live it.

I followed Joe McDonough’s journey from the moment he first shared it —

what I can only describe as a kind of adventurous enlightenment.

Through his work, 1guy1world2wheels, he travels the world,

showing how others live beyond the ordinary.

When I learned he would be documenting his journey to Everest,

something in me came alive.

I wondered…

could I live this through him?

I have seen the path, the climb, the reality of what it takes.

And instead of quieting the longing… it gave it life.

At first, it can feel like standing just outside of something meant for you.

Watching.

Imagining.

Feeling the pull without the possibility.

But over time… something begins to shift.

We begin to realize we are not just watching — we are feeling.

We are not just observing — we are connecting.

And in some quiet, unexpected way… we are still participating.

Perhaps the calling was never only about the mountain itself.

Perhaps it was about what the mountain represents —

• courage
• endurance
• rising above
• standing somewhere beyond the ordinary

The soul does not measure possibility the way life does.

So we learn, slowly and gently, to hold certain dreams differently.

Not as something we must complete…

but as something we are allowed to carry.

And maybe that does not make the dream any less real.

Maybe it simply means

the soul has more than one way of traveling.

Some dreams are not meant to be lived… but they are still meant to be felt deeply.

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Susan Thomas

My Anywhere But Here

A place where the soul is still allowed to wander, even when life asks us to stay.