Today I climbed a mountain...

So yesterday, got together with a friend and thought we'd head out to Provo Canyon. I've recently been exploring the idea that I could possibly be a 'nature girl' but that I really hadn't taken the time to find out. So, part of my excitement for spring was to be able to figure out how well old Mother Nature and I get along. Surprisingly, I think we can be friends!

Standing at the base of Bridal Veil Falls, I thought "well. now is as good a time as any, right?" and i said "let's do it". We got to the middle and looked down...the ascent wasn't nearly as stressful as the descent looked like it would be...but the top looked so close! Too close to give up on, honestly. How would I feel looking back, seeing the top and realizing it would have only taken a precious few more steps to sit at the top, on a rock outcropping about 3000 feet above the ground? Well, I won't ever know, because I DID get to the top. And it was pretty frigging amazing.

As I sat there, looking down, I had a revelation. Right there, at the moment I was sitting on the top of a mountain, I felt awesome-powerful, strong, re-energized, optimistic. Which is how we feel, when we conquer problems-those mountains of life, the ones that are disguised as molehills (or wait, is it the other way around?), the stumbling blocks that bring us crashing to the ground, etc. When we conquer those, life is good. It's climbing back down the mountain that is scary. Getting back on the ground, back to real-life. That's the real challenge. Taking that energy, optimism and willingness to work, climb and sweat for what we want in life-that is the scary sight we often see awaiting us at the bottom.

So. I took a rock from Bridal Veil. It's pretty big, considering I had to climb back down the way-slipperier-than-it-looked-or-felt slope. But I purposely chose a big one because I have a tendency to toss out memoirs-not things from my kids, but things I pick up that I think might be good to remind me of certain activities, experiences. But too often those things are small and get lost among the shuffle of daily life and i find myself with a pile of movie tickets, rocks, pieces of fabric or ribbon or cards that really....well add to the clutter of my life. A big black rock with a solid strip of quartz on the bottom isn't gonna get tossed as easily. And I'll remember. The biggest mountains we face are the ones at the bottom of the slope. Whether going up, OR coming down.