Holly defined #LeadwithLove and #partnering that week. She was so patient when I refused to go or down midway on a climb. Our kids always teach us, but that week I definitely felt she was the teacher and I was student. She was kind, loving, and encouraging. She had a firmness in her patience and a gentleness to her strength. It was through those qualities that my trust in her abilities and knowledge deepened. I continued up the mountain. However, full disclosure, she traded shoes with me, so I got to wear the climbing shows. And, she told me she wasn’t going down. It’s ironic, isn’t it when your kids employ your parenting methods on you?

I’ve been busy illustrating during these frigid temperatures. My passion is abstract concept illustration. I paused illustrating more than a decade ago and I’m so happy to put my hat in the ring again. Directory of Illustration has monthly and weekly concepts, which is a great for me, because I like assignments. They don’t make us illustrate, but it’s a goal of mine to illustrate at least one of the concepts each month.

January’s concept is #LeadwithLove and the hashtag for this past week was #DIPartnering. I decided to research for inspiration and found topics surrounding marriage and business. The search images weren’t much help either displaying handshakes, kids around a desk and adults around conference room tables.

Once again, research was leading me to think outside of the google box. After tossing around a lot of ideas, somehow the image of climbing came to mind. My daughter is a climber, so I guess that topic is buried to deep in there anyway.

For a Mother’s Day gift, she invited me on trip to Moab, Utah. She’d do all the planning. We’d camp, climb, hike and more. Did I want to go?

Yesssss! Number one my almost 22-year-old daughter wanted to spend time with me. And, not just time, but extended time in her then favorite place in the U.S. I’d get to see and experience her Moab, her Utah.

Plus, it was my year of the grasshopper (Google the fable of the ant and the grasshopper if you have no idea what I’m talking about). I had already travelled to Savannah (GA), Prague, Norway, and Spain that year. I was ready to go west.

That trip was the most amazing ever… so far. We camped on Porcupine Rim and near another arch outside Moab. We rappelled and canyoneered. We hiked to three different waterfalls. We climbed beside arches park to the most beautiful surreal place in the world where I swear, they filmed The Martian.

Holly made cowboy coffee and cooked our delicious vegan meals over a campfire. She warmed rocks to soothe my arthritic hands after kayaking the Colorado River against the wind for 3 hours.

I treated us to a massage and a few meals/smoothies in town, as well as a night at Moab Under Canvas. We stayed there the night of Mother’s Day, day 7 of the trip, our last night in Moab. It was a quiet, soft ending to what was for me a lifetime adventure and to her a typical week in Moab.

Wow, you know so many feelings. Thankful Holly asked me to go. Grateful she included me and was so patient. Proud of Holly’s abilities and capability and that she thought I was capable. Impressed by Holly’s preparedness and readiness. Amazed I was able to do all the things and at Holly’s leadership, strength, and fearlessness. Confident she’d found her path. Convinced I’d go on a trip anywhere with her in a heartbeat. Most of all, beyond happy that for seven days, as two women, we were partnering.