Uncategorized – Devin Leigh Snyder

Should I Climb Everest in March?

Just the base camp — not the summit. Shall we? But the base camp itself is a 7-day climb. That’s after flying into Lukla, which at 9,500 ft elevation and 1 crash per 1,000 flights is the most dangerous airport in the world. But when am I going to be here again, with two newContinue reading “Should I Climb Everest in March?”

Culture Shock: Month 1 in the Himalayas

Jaymashi Sathiharu! (Hello friends!) I’m slowly but surely assimilating to the different pair of shoes for each room, using a bidet (or small pitcher of water) and my left hand every time I use the restroom, which is often only a hole in the ground. I cried the third time I had to use theContinue reading “Culture Shock: Month 1 in the Himalayas”

I have flown to Mt. Everest & crossed a 6-lane highway on foot

Tuesday morning I took a mountain flight to see the most formidable Himalayan peaks. It was surreal to fly alongside the summit of Mt. Everest, so stark above the earth in the golden morning sun. She is the highest mountain in the world at 29,032 feet (5.5 miles) above sea level. I almost missed theContinue reading “I have flown to Mt. Everest & crossed a 6-lane highway on foot”

First impressions of my new home:

I have arrived in the Himalayas after 2 days of traveling. I have never seen such poverty in my life. The disparity is impossible to understand unless you visit. In the taxi on the way to my hostel, I passed a multi-story building with all the windows burnt out of it in a fire. YetContinue reading “First impressions of my new home:”

I depart for Qatar in 30 minutes.

I’m typing this while contorted into an odd stretch on the carpet at my gate, to minimize back pain on my over 13 hour flight to Qatar. After exploring Doha for a bit during my layover tomorrow I’ll jet off to the Himalayas. I can tell I’m right where I’m supposed to be because everyContinue reading “I depart for Qatar in 30 minutes.”

Carrying Christ to the Himalayas

When I was 6, a missionary came to our church to update us on her work. As she presented I memorized the cinder block walls of the church gym, compelled to ponder for the first time in my short life, “when I grow up, shall I be a missionary instead of a princess?” Over theContinue reading “Carrying Christ to the Himalayas”

Oil Pastels: Gateway Drug?

There’s something that catalyzes the creative half of my brain when I can tangibly experience the analog process of creativity. No screen. No music. No show in the background. No entertainment aside from the silence of my own ability to create. And last night, no experience. Last night, the tangibility was the sticky oil ofContinue reading “Oil Pastels: Gateway Drug?”

The Vampire Test

“‘Whatever excites you, go do it. Whatever drains you, stop doing it.’ – Derek Sivers “There’s a funny story in John Richardson‘s biography A Life of Picasso. “Pablo Picasso was notorious for sucking all the energy out of the people he met. His granddaughter Marina claimed that he squeezed people like he squeezed one ofContinue reading “The Vampire Test”

Hopefully this is the worst I’ll ever be

“Anyone who isn’t embarrassed of who they were last year probably isn’t learning enough.” – Alain de Botton My mother commented “In 10 years when you review these, we pray you’ll not be mortified,” on my last post. As merciful and kind that sentiment is, Mama, I pray I am. I pray my mortification abounds.Continue reading “Hopefully this is the worst I’ll ever be”

Do it anyway doctrine

Three weeks ago I swam/body-surfed through a rain-swollen river with my friend, in a thunderstorm. We screamed and yelled and sang way out there amidst the rapids, perched on a pine log lodged between the rocks. I found myself at the mercy of a force beyond my control. I felt alive. Since then, I’ve startedContinue reading “Do it anyway doctrine”