Books
Buy One Woman In The Himalayas:
“This true story is a literal ‘cliff-hanger.’“
Stacey Wittig, author Spiritual and Walking Guide: León to Santiago
One Woman in the Himalayas recounts Tracy’s journey of unexpected twists and turns on Nepal’s famed Annapurna Circuit, one of the great treks in the world. She struggles with decisions that test her ability to adapt and think fast on her feet. This story is about finding the courage to continue even when things don’t go as you planned.
Walk with Tracy on an ancient trading route past waterfalls and rice terraces; peek inside the oldest monastery in the Himalayas; and share the path with yak herders and Sherpas. When Tracy finally hangs a string of Tibetan prayer flags over the Gangapurna Icefall to mark her turnaround point, she remembers the Buddhist monk who blessed them. Maybe Tracy wasn’t quite ready for this test, but “If you wait until you think you’re ready,” she says, “you may never act.”
In her first book, One Woman’s Camino, Tracy captured our hearts with the story about a mother-daughter adventure on an ancient pilgrim route across Spain. Now join Tracy as she walks in the shadow of the world’s highest mountains and brings us along on a raw and wild ride of changed plans, pivots and decisions made in thin air. You don’t want to miss a single word.
Look inside:
When I said I would go to Nepal, I was pretty excited to build on the success of my walk across Spain. After all, I was in the best shape of my life. Why not step a little further into the unknown? But as I learned more about this journey, my palms got sweaty and my stomach started to flip. After I had made the decision, my adrenaline started to spike. Regularly. My amygdala flew into action; that’s the crazy little part of the brain that sniffs out fear and has been keeping us alive for thousands of years. It felt like my heart rate was constantly racing. Did I really know what I was getting into?
I had made my decision, perhaps not recklessly, but certainly impulsively, and now I was trying to come to terms with it. Red flags started to appear. The more diligent I became with my research, the more I learned about unpredictable weather, trekkers dying of exposure, and an inadequate infrastructure in a fragile part of the world. I said yes and then began a painful journey into second-guessing my decision.
Little did I know at that time how often on this journey I would have to stop and ask myself, “How badly do you want this, Tracy? Will you keep going or will you turn back?”
This is a story about what happens when your decisions don’t turn out as you planned. Because, of course, they never do. If you pay attention to the subtitle of this book—not every idea is a good idea, but you don’t know until you try—you might think that my trek to Nepal was a bad move, even a regrettable one. It’s true that I may not have adequately weighed all of the risks beforehand, but I went anyway.
Buy One Woman In The Himalayas:
One Woman’s Camino:
Leaving a highly-visible job took some courage, but Tracy Pawelski knew it was time. As she looked out on her horizon, her next step crystallized. She would join her 21-year-old daughter on a once-in-a-lifetime walk across Spain called el Camino de Santiago.
While Tracy’s trek along the 500 miles of this ancient Catholic pilgrimage began as a mother-daughter adventure, Tracy soon realized this was her Camino, a journey of profoundly personal insight and spiritual growth. Camino has a way of teasing out life’s most meaningful lessons.
Discover the magic and metaphor of El Camino de Santiago. Join Tracy as she navigates the challenges and rewards of Camino—including the endurance needed to walk 500 miles, the fellow pilgrims she meets along the way, and the internal struggles that come as she searches for answers.
Ask Tracy how she walked those 500 miles, and she’ll answer, “One step at a time.” Whether the next step in your life is rewiring your priorities, resetting your course, or reconnecting with your faith, the first step can be the hardest. In Tracy’s journey, you’ll find the inspiration to make each step a new beginning in this uncertain but glorious journey we call life.
Look inside:
What is everyone searching for on Camino?People walk El Camino for any number of reasons, and each of them has his or her own story sprinkled with the pixie dust that Camino kicks up. My personal trek on El Camino de Santiago began as a mother-daughter journey across Spain. Along the way, however, it became a 35-day pilgrimage of personal reflection. In no time at all, it became clear that this was my Camino, a journey of profoundly personal insights and growth. Ask anyone who has walked Camino; it has a way of teasing out life’s most meaningful lessons of trust, community, gratitude and forgiveness. Camino has a way of offering an opportunity for reflection and spiritual sustenance in today’s world of distractions.
This book chronicles one woman’s Camino and how the journey served as an unmistakable metaphor for the values we all share—ways of living and behaving that can become buried as a result of busy, workaday lives. I want to share my story because we are all looking for an inspired next step in this journey we call life.This mother-daughter journey wasn’t always easy, and Juliet and I didn’t always walk together, but it was one of the most rewarding expeditions of my life. For me, it was a once-in-a-life-time break from a stressful career and a chance to deepen my relationship with my daughter, who was in transition between childhood and womanhood. The gifts I received from the journey, however, extend far beyond the reward of walking into Santiago. The space to reflect without distraction and the spiritual food I received along the way helped me to course-correct to my deepest values, personal priorities, and universal truths. And walking El Camino de Santiago with Juliet gave me my next inspired step, something I sorely needed.
Once I said out loud that I was going, I was committed. All in. No turning back. I kept asking myself, “What am I so afraid of?”