PCT: the start

Blissful is given the "all clear" by her surgeon and gets ready to step into the rest of her life.  

1. Surgery for breast cancer has completely changed Blissful's body, but has given her a new power of bravery and knowing herself better. 
2. One friend calls her a "sur-thriver" facing down the situation directly, and trying to do what St. Paul said, to "rejoice always and not worry about anything."
3. Time is running out but wouldn't it be cool to live fully, audaciously, without fear – and with joy – even in an uncertain world? 
4. Next week, Blissful heads back to trail in Arizona to finish a portion she had to skip when walking two years ago. 

MUSIC: Introduccion y Allegro by Carlos Guastavino as played by Alison Young, flute and Vicki Seldon, piano. 

Blissful takes her first hike on a trail after surgery for breast cancer and decides she prefers to be described as a "thriver" – or even "aliver" – rather than survivor. 

1. It's a hot, humid summer day at Lebanon Hills, a region carved by glaciers with kettles and eskers, plus the singing of numerous birds. 
2. Blissful's surgeon tells her it's time to put on a backpack and get back on trail, even though she's isn't completely healed. 
3. Illness humbles us and teaches us about our vulnerability and ultimate decline, and yet it opens us up to discover our superpowers, like moving forward to see what's next. 
4. It's the price we pay for being alive, but it offers us a chance to appreciate what we have even more. 

MUSIC: Poema del Pastor Coya by Angel Lasala as played by Alison Young, flute and Vicki Seldon, piano. 

As Blissful heals from a bilateral mastectomy due to breast cancer, she reflects on the person she wants to be going forward. 

1. Blissful is incredibly lucky in only having to undergo a radical surgery to rid her body of cancer. 
2. Step by step walking through her neighborhood, she slowly recovers back to her hiker self. 
3. The American writer Joyce Carol Oates speaks of the moment we realize that loss is part of our experience. “When that starts to happen to you, it is quite stunning.”
4. Being out of control with illness is falling-to-the-knees humbling for Blissful and it's a challenge to stay positive and "bad ass."
5. But she's inspired by the late actor Julian Sands who spoke of climbing summits as "not so  much a celebration of oneself, but the eradication of one’s self-consciousness. And so on these walks you lose yourself, you become a vessel of energy in harmony, hopefully with your environment.” 
6. What a way to live!

MUSIC: Poema del Pastor Coya by Angel Lasala as played by Alison Young, flute and Vicki Seldon, piano. 

When Blissful is diagnosed with breast cancer, she undergoes a bilateral mastectomy to save her life and secure her future.

1. A friend tells Blissful she has it easy because she has a partner in her husband Richard. 
2. Indeed, she is incredibly grateful to be part of a team because it's helped her navigate some very tough times in her life. 
3. Blissful's view of life is that it can be full of abundance and grace, but sometimes bad things just happen at no fault of our own. 
4. Kind of like the children's book, Good Luck, Bad Luck, we shouldn't blame ourselves when life throws us a curveball – no, the universe is not sending us a "message," rather it's a chance for us to grow and stretch when we learn how to face difficulty. 
5. Bad Luck came to Blissful with a diagnosis of cancer, but good luck was that it was caught quickly, so there's no need for chemotherapy – a moment of grace. 

MUSIC: Poema del Pastor Coya by Angel Lasala, Suite by Ernst Krenek and Introduccion y Allegro by Carlos Guastavino  as played by Alison Young, flute and Vicki Seldon, piano. 

Blissful begins her cancer journey looking back at her life as a woman. 

1. Blissful spends the days before a bilateral mastectomy gathering together a team of supportive women who have been through the procedure.
2. She also walks, hikes, bikes, swims, kayaks all in an effort to calm herself – or running away from panic. 
3. In looking forward to being flat-chested and "ultra-light", Blissful reminisces on becoming a woman from "sprouts" to a "mean girl" to a middle-aged woman saving her own life. 

MUSIC: Suite by Ernst Krenek and Introduccion y Allegro by Carlos Guastavino  as played by Alison Young, flute 

Blissful wraps up her hike of the Appalachian Trail in Maine to head home for cancer treatment. 

1. The two days between Monson and Caratunk are rain-free and magical with a winter wren, hermit thrush, northern parula plus warty frogs and a curious snake. 
2. It's two big mountains with views including Moxie Bald and Pleasant Pond with glorious views of humpy green forested peaks like emerging leviathan in an even more expansive sea of green.
3. Camping is near a pond circled by summer homes and loud pontoon boats, only a few miles out of Caratunk.
4. Blissful meets a cancer survivor finishing the Appalachian Trail and is empowered by her healing and moxie to get right back on trail. 
5. Then she heads home for a new and scary adventure. 

MUSIC: Poema del Pastor Coya by Angel Lasala  as played by Alison Young, flute and Vicki Seldon, piano

Blissful makes it out of the 100 Mile Wilderness and receives a call from her doctor calling her home to have a bilateral mastectomy.

1. It's wet and muddy but mostly road out to Monson, Maine, the first town in ten days.
2. She has to go home, but not immediately, and can head back on trail for at least a few more days. 
3. And it's perfect timing in sunny weather at last and a long reroute around flooded rivers. 
4. But it's a gorgeous hike through forest loud with birds and frogs. 
5. And it takes her to lovely Moxie Bald Pond where the forest creatures enchant her even when distressed by her cancer diagnosis and the fact that she'll have to go home.

MUSIC: Poema del Pastor Coya by Angel Lasala  as played by Alison Young, flute and Vicki Seldon, piano

The trail is hard in rain, mud and cold, but Blissful gets the boost she needs from hiker and creature.  

1. It's mountainous now in the 100-mile Wilderness, revealing only misty views of distant lakes enveloped in thick forest. 
2. The "Sibs", two thru-hikers also from Minnesota, plus "Shoes," a barefoot hiker, meet her and offer encouragement.
3. As does Fourth Mountain Bog, a stunning ecosystem crossed by boardwalk where a White Throated Sparrow greets her as well as giant. maroon-veined pitcher plants.
4. It's too hard to get to the planned shelter so she and Shoes stay next to Long Pond Stream.
5. They are rudely awakened by hikers late at night who warn them not to try to cross and instead offer directions for the reroute.
6. Blissful is grateful for all that happened today, even the rude hikers who ensure she doesn't get in trouble in teh flooded stream. 

MUSIC: Poema del Pastor Coya by Angel Lasala  as played by Alison Young, flute and Vicki Seldon, piano

Blissful crosses a high, exposed peak in fog and rain then discovers she needs to go further than she thought.   

1. Hiking south on the Appalachian Trail, it's the first high mountains since Katahdin, but the weather is manageable.  
2. And there are small surprises like twisted and stunted "krumholz" trees, wildly fluorescent fungus and wildflowers heavily laden with damp. 
3. Even high up, the birds are loud including a new bird t Magnolia Warbler.
4. When Blissful discovers she needs to go further than expected, crossing a river and steeply up, she goes for it.
5. The "Sibs" – a pair of siblings also from Minnesota – give her courage as well as spotting her first Red Spotted Newt as orange as a gummy.
6. The river crossing is easy and the uphills go one and on finally ending in a rock fall to climb up Chairback Mountain to a shelter shared with a barefoot thru-hiker named 'Shoes.' 

MUSIC: Poema del Pastor Coya by Angel Lasala  as played by Alison Young, flute and Vicki Seldon, piano

Blissful creates an audio narrative as an Artist-in-Residence at Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park in Upper Peninsula, Michigan.  

1. During her artistic residency, she immersed herself in the vividly sonorous landscape , collecting sound as she hiked.
2.  Birds, falls and the wind spoke to her about spring’s message – a message of renewal and rebirth.
3. It's  such a fleeting moment, one so transitory, we could almost miss if we’re not listening carefully. 

MUSIC: Poema del Pastor Coya by Angel Lasala  as played by Alison Young, flute and Vicki Seldon, piano