Why climb mountains?
A deepening look into the age old question of the journey vs. the climb
In life, we are asked that we constantly cast our gaze up ahead:
Where are you headed?
What effort are you willing to put out to get there?
Are you willing to keep your gaze forward through each obstacle that arises, persevering along the entirety of the path that is required to get you to where you desire to go???
AND
Are you willing to be so present through all of it, that you don’t miss the magic and wonder and transformation that is available right now, here in this very moment!
It’s mountain season here where I make my home at the base of The Rocky Mountains. By this, I mean that the last of winter’s snow is melting away, leaving the high peaks exposed and ripe for my footsteps that carry me up one trail after the next!
One trail after the next! Getting out there as often as is possible to move my body up one mountain after the next!
One mountain after the next!
Then another, followed by another!
How many mountains can I be graced by before the next snow starts to fall in the months up ahead?
How many peaks?
How many moments of receiving the greatest of joy and wonder that I know is alive on this Planet Earth?
There is something that the mountains do to me, especially as I receive the gift that is planting my own two feet upon them, physically moving my body in close proximity to their very nature; getting to know them not just from afar, but right up close.
I know I know! You don’t have to get right up close to connect with a mountain. You see, there is a great wonder that unfolds as we cast our gaze up to the high peaks, allowing our gaze to form a connection that awakens our hearts and stirs our souls.
Awhhh, but there is something profound about getting up there yourself, offering your own sweat in devotion to what it takes to greet her, and willing to be present to all that unfolds when, at last, you are graced with the moment to stand high atop that mountain.
What will we receive in the moment when, at last, we are able to plant our feet upon the very top, sink into the knowing that it is through our very own effort and perseverance that we got here so that now we can look out on the great world around us and be filled!
Of course, we know the story, don’t we? That it’s not about the moment that you stand high atop the peak!
I mean, let’s be clear. There is a moment where you stand atop the peak, look out at where you’ve come from, look around at all the potential for where you could go! It is in this moment that you get to feel the efforting and the fatigue fall away as you are taken over by sheer joy and wonder for all that is alive here at this highest of views!
There is a moment up top, when you find yourself at the highest of points, where you get to receive the fullness in a joyous rapture that no other sort of experience can touch!
And, at the same time, we know it’s not about the destination, is it?
For, the moment that we are filled - within that very same breath! - we start to empty.
The moment we are filled with joy of achieving that which we have been so desiring, we cast our gaze to the next point, and it is at this new moment that an emptiness begins to take holds as we step into an aching, a longing for what comes next!
What comes next after we receive the greatest of joys from standing at the highest of points?
What comes next is the next aching; the next longing.
Longing… what comes next?
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I have a new piece coming out soon. It’s a much longer piece, speaking to my journey to trail running in its extreme form (i.e., training for a 100 mile ultra running event that will take place in the upcoming weeks). It’s a piece that will speak to whatever it is that lives in me and that moves me to run mountains in this wild form!
Today, bringing us a reminder of the greatest of the teachings from the mountain. Are you ready for it?
This is one that I receive every time I climb a mountain; which, these days, is most days. Because of this, with each experience it solidifies a little deeper into my soul as I come to truly understand the depths of the teaching.
Last evening, I was out climbing my backyard mountain. This one is more humble than the ones in the picture earlier. These backyard mountains of mine don’t pierce above the trees. Instead, they exist as a patchwork quilt of forest and burn scar that cover rolling mountains that reach up no higher than the trees can go.
How I love to leave these mountains and step foot into the higher peaks where I can climb up and up and pierce through to the realm above the forest and see outward into the beautiful expanse!
And, how I love to come home, return to the same trail up the same slope, get to know the forest for how she expresses in this moment, and be present with her in connection to my own ever-unfolding experience.
And I think that we have, indeed, arrived at what it is that brings me, time and time again, out into these mountains:
Yes, so that I can stand up high and feel accomplished and soak in the joy and wonder that only a view from the top can!
And, because each step along the way offers a moment to deepen into presence for all that is alive:
what is alive, here in this moment, at this step on the mountain?
how does it connect with me, my own self, as my own being winding my way through this wild human experience
This is to say, what it’s really all about is me, in this moment, as all that I am, connecting to her - the mountain - in this moment.
What is it alive in me that wants to speak to, or awaken to, or sing with what is alive here?
It’s a sort of dance, isn’t it?
It’s not about me getting anywhere. It’s about me being with, and allowing this moment to take me to the next step, and the next.
Knowing (and this is where that deepening lesson comes in), that when we find the spaces in life that truly sing to us, we get to receive the blessing that is moving with grace from one step right into the next, ascending all the way up and up until the very moment when we get to receive that big and bright shiny moment that is high above all else!
Oh, how I look ahead to the next brightest of moments standing high atop all else as I receive the greatest of joy and splendor that lives here on this Planet Earth to be embodied and experienced for all that it is!
And, until then, here I stand, in this moment, knowing that this moment is just as important along the great climb through it all.
