This morning, as M and I were running, I mentioned that Jess saw 9 bunnies on her 20 miler and that those were her ‘sherpas’ cheering her on and he asked what I meant by ‘sherpa’ so I explained, using Heather’s great way of explaining it, and Lindsay’s! (this was a 12 bunny run this morning, btw, how awesome is that?! end bunny sidenote).

He paused and then said, “I’m your sherpa.”

And he’s right. So right. He was saying it in a lighthearted way, but he’s SO right. I never truly thought of it that way, but in every way, he is my sherpa. 

My running sherpa.

Pushing me up big hills (sometimes even literally placing his hand on the small of my back and pushing me gently up, up, up), and powering me through rolling hills (which I effing hate, btw, almost worse than big hills!) chanting ‘get up the hill, get up the hill, you can do it, you can do it’ or singing a random song lyric to distract me. (he also does this on any given run!)

Keeping my pace, rather than running ahead of me, especially when he senses I am struggling a bit (I tend to try to speed up to match his pace and that usually falters and doesn’t go well!), and falls in step behind me instead. So much so that one of our usual ‘running angels‘ remarked as we passed them at the end of our run this morning “she’s still ahead of you! she’s always ahead of you!’ to which he laughed and said ‘yes she is!’ Little do they know that he does this intentionally, for my sake, not because he is slower than me, but in that moment, it couldn’t have been more clear that he is my running sherpa.

My life sherpa.

Never have I had someone in my life that I can have a deep conversation with, about work, ethical debates, life lessons or even politics (and I hate politics!) and learn so much from someone in sometimes so few words. M is one of the most insightful, intelligent, and driven person that I know. He motivates me to challenge myself, question the status quo and do more, reach higher, and achieve. He is also someone that I can rely on for advice, support, comfort. And in the same way, I do the same for him. We support, we challenge, we motivate each other. In partnership. 

My love sherpa. 

Obviously, this goes without saying. M is the love of my life. In every way, on every level, to the deepest facets. I have never loved anyone as much as I love him. And I have never wanted to unite my life with someone more than I do with him. And every day, he does something, says something, or looks at me in a way that strikes me in just the right way to remind me of this. He is my love, my heart, my partner. My penguin.

M is…my sherpa. In every single way.