A Mountain Top Experience

Monday morning – the clouds just opened up with a big bang and the rain is pouring down.  I am struggling through my healthy lunch – get this – because it is TOO much food!  Ha!  Now there is a miracle.

I know life is good when…..

1.     The rain only dampens the ground and not my spirit – I know the sun will once again warm the earth and my soul.

2.     My lunch is enough.

3.     My body hurts less and moves more.

4.     I get to the mountain top for just a moment and glimpse what a healthy life can look like.

I had a mountain top experience this weekend – literally.  We headed west with the idea we would hike Johnson’s Canyon – an easy walk on more or less level ground in a beautiful mountain setting.  A missed turn and a desire to capitalize on the additional mileage, led to a new adventure – a hike to Grassi Lakes.  It is listed as easy in the guidebooks and certainly families do it together – from infants to seniors – but I had left it to my end-of-summer list of goals as the walk is all uphill – a stress to my healing knees and improved, but still annoying asthma. 

Raouf carried the lunch to leave my hands free to use my walking poles.  I had to stop many, many times to catch my breath and rest here and there – talk about burning calves! – but I didn’t give up.  My knees were pain free – amazing!  The sense of elation I experienced when I reached the top and was able to sit and enjoy one of my favorite destinations in our Alberta Rockies was a true mountain top experience.  I felt fantastic – the beauty is steeped in serenity even amidst the crowd of hikers sharing the mountain top with us.  Deep, deep water so clear you can see to the bottom, sparkling green under the blue sky.  Water bugs twirled and sent ripples that were visible for several feet.  The small water fall provided a  perfect musical background to a scene out of the tourist ads you see on TV.  Our lunch was simple – a salad and fruit – but it was so delicious and filling – true contentment. 

 

I audibly sighed and stretched out in the sun and drank it all in.  The rock climbers were out in full force and were struggling up a very high cliff – ropes dangling and hands groping for the next hold.  Unbelievable guts or insane risk – either way, there they were, not giving up as the other direction was down!  Did getting to the top give them a more amazing view than the one we glimpsed on our climb up?  I really don’t think so but I did catch a glimpse of the feeling they must experience when they conquer their mountain top.  It is the journey to the mountain top that makes it so exhilarating when you stand on the peak.

I stood on my peak on Sunday – and I celebrated the journey that got me to this place.  My first commitment to this journey to a healthier me was to never give up – to follow through – because it is my chance to write my story and the goal is only the guiding light. I only move closer if I take the next step and then the next and the next! God is good!