The Mountain

Well, okay it was more of a hill than a mountain, but it'll do.  I was running up a big, big hill today.  1.25 mile stretch of elevation near my health club.  I parked at the parking lot, ran to the base of the hill, then up to the top, ran back down, and finished off with a nice stretch in the stretching area, and some time in the steam room.  All in all, about a 5 mile run, uphill and downhill, with lots of walking (tender achilles) in between.  I felt good, despite some chest congestion from a weeklong cold, I'm almost over it.

I was thinking about something abstract as I was running.  Running is like life, you expend a certain amount of energy, and that translates into movement.

On a flat ground, life is normal, nothing helping you, nothing hindering you.  The energy you expend fully translates into movement, with no other worries.

The big mountain (or hill), the endless upward view of it, the windy road that traverses through it ... is the struggle of life.  The struggle tilts the flat ground upward, and now the energy you expend only translates partially into movement.  The other part is wasted, due to the upward tilt.  The wasted energy is your mind, thinking random and fictional thoughts or despair or anxiety because of the rest of the big mountain to climb. 

Or maybe it's your process.  Try to run up the hill, and you run out of energy completely, you're trying to climb too fast, solve problems too quickly.  Slow down, and walk it instead.  Save your energy, savor the moment, rest your mind, and make progress regularly up the hill and be observant of what you see.  See others ahead of you, those represent people going through the same struggle you are.  If you slow down enough and conserve energy, you can see what they're doing to continue.  Look back, and you'll either see how far you've come, or others on their way.  Don't be afraid to pass along advice, it'll help them and you. 

Once you get close to the top, you'll begin to see the plateau or horizon, and this represents the end of the struggle.  You get there and look down, and are absolutely amazed that you could get this far, but you did, and you're in one piece, just like so many who were ahead of you, and so many who were behind you.  On the way down, life is easy, because you're blessed with a downward tilt.  The energy you expend is added to that of the tilt, so you can run fast with little energy wasted.  This is when life treats you well, those days that are sunny and smiley, when people are nice to you, and when things go your way.  Enjoy it, because it's going to plateau very quickly, and before you know it, we're back to our normal life, flat ground.

Sometimes, running does that for you.  You appreciate the things in life that you're going through and relate them almost comically to your run.  For me, getting to the top, and staying there for moment, I saw the struggle and overcame it, and came back down from it with momentum.  On when on flat ground, I ran with ease, because the struggle was so much tougher.

I pray for you, my friend, that your struggles can be overcome a few steps at a time, and that you may look back at the mountain of struggle with amazement, knowing that you made it through all of that.