(photo courtesy of some random website found by google)Sometimes in life you need to do hard things.
Hiking is one of those hard things for me.
When I see a mountain, I think:
"Wow, how beautiful and magnificent. I'm so lucky to have this kind of scenery in my backyard."
"Wow, how beautiful and magnificent. I'm so lucky to have this kind of scenery in my backyard."
When Steve sees a mountain, he thinks:
"Wow, that would be awesome to climb. Just think of what you could see from the top!"
Sometimes I wish I had Steve's attitude.
When I think about my attitude toward climbing physical mountains, I wonder if I'm ever being that passive with my mental, emotional, or spiritual mountains.
Hiking is one of those "easy to find parallels to life" kind of activities.
Climbing Timp was a hard thing for me.
I wasn't prepared physically.
I found it easy to compare myself to all the other hikers on the trail that were doing better than me (especially my hard core mom!).
Sometimes it was so easy to look at the top and get discouraged by how much farther we had to go.
Easier than looking at the bottom to see how far we had come.
But I tried really hard to not complain.
I didn't want to be that person--
the one who makes it miserable for everyone else,
the one you wish would just give up and go home.
Who wants to be that person?
I was so glad that I had my sweet husband there to encourage me and tell me how awesome I was doing.
He knew it was hard.
He was behind me the whole way.
"Wow, that would be awesome to climb. Just think of what you could see from the top!"
Sometimes I wish I had Steve's attitude.
When I think about my attitude toward climbing physical mountains, I wonder if I'm ever being that passive with my mental, emotional, or spiritual mountains.
Hiking is one of those "easy to find parallels to life" kind of activities.
Climbing Timp was a hard thing for me.
I wasn't prepared physically.
I found it easy to compare myself to all the other hikers on the trail that were doing better than me (especially my hard core mom!).
Sometimes it was so easy to look at the top and get discouraged by how much farther we had to go.
Easier than looking at the bottom to see how far we had come.
But I tried really hard to not complain.
I didn't want to be that person--
the one who makes it miserable for everyone else,
the one you wish would just give up and go home.
Who wants to be that person?
I was so glad that I had my sweet husband there to encourage me and tell me how awesome I was doing.
He knew it was hard.
He was behind me the whole way.
I loved climbing that mountain.
I really enjoyed everything about it.
I drive by it every day on my way to school and think,
"I conquered you. Yes, you. If I can conquer you, I'm not doing too bad."
Sometimes in life we need to climb mountains.
Real ones.
Because they make our other mountains
easier to recognize, easier to climb, easier to conquer.
Easier to love.
I really enjoyed everything about it.
I drive by it every day on my way to school and think,
"I conquered you. Yes, you. If I can conquer you, I'm not doing too bad."
Sometimes in life we need to climb mountains.
Real ones.
Because they make our other mountains
easier to recognize, easier to climb, easier to conquer.
Easier to love.
WE MADE IT!the summit
We slid down not one, not two, but THREE glaciers on our cold little bums...it was awesome! Definitely the best part of the mountain! :)
my mom is awesome.
(we really like this pose...haha )
Thank you Timp.
You were hard and you were painful,
but because of you I have this picture:
Steve and Audrey Howell July 11, 2009On the top of the world.
Audge!! I'm so impressed! I am NOT a hiker either. I've been thinking about mountains lately too... mostly because of Miley's song The Climb comes on the radio every two seconds, but it has a good message. Thanks for always being an example of positivity in my life. You are stinkin' cool and I miss your face. :)
ReplyDeleteGreat post and GREAT job on making it all the way! That's a long way! You're awesome!!! I love that picture of you guys at the very top.
ReplyDeleteAww . . . I love you Audge! (You're not too bad either, Steve) Thanks for the thoughts. I need to be become a better hiker (both literally and symbolically).
ReplyDelete♪There's always gonna be another mountain♪
(who would've thought that I'd actually like a Miley song?)
Wow, timpanogas is really pretty!! Congrats on making it to the top. Looks like you got some great pictures.
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ReplyDeleteSorry Elisabeth got a hold of the computer haha! That is such a neat post and great insight!! I love the thought of accomplishing a 'mountain'. I can't believe you guys climbed it! What a great accomplishment!
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