THE CLIMB

I remember sitting at the table writing down every little detail—

lights dimmed, classical music, no one in the room but Ron and me—

But then the discovery of a perfect knot in the cord and everything abruptly changed. Twenty-eight hours of hard labor taught me exactly who I am. There was no choice but to call on everything within me and dig in. 

We orchestrate our moments, map our strategies and make our plans…but we have forgotten that life has a mind of its own.

Through so many seasons, joy and sorrow inhabit the same space, seemingly shoving and challenging one another on which will go first. The times my spirit is most at peace, are ones when joy and sorrow join hands and together begin the climb. 

We dig in our heels when things don’t go our way, believing we are only reacting to a moment in time. Yet, this is when momentum ceases, when everything we’ve worked and hoped for begins to slip from our grasp. 

The future is held in the hard moment, balanced on the edge of our decision to hesitate or lean in.

There is no question that both the Rare and Miraculous are discovered in the lines not scripted and rehearsed. The soul of our humanity occupies the seemingly empty space between each verse—

in calling on an untapped inner strength when the loss seems too great to bear,

through showing up to soothe another's grief in ways that bless and restore,

in pushing through the breaking point to something extraordinary waiting on the other side. 

It is an illusion to believe that the greatest of us are those who know exactly where they’re going and what’s ahead. In truth, the most extraordinary of us are those who refuse to be surprised, offended, and undermined when things don’t go their way.

Ours is never a solo journey. What we experience as “difficult” may be explicitly for someone else’s ultimate gain.

And sometimes the greatest blessings, rising from our labor, are the ones we never live to see.

We may never know just how much we belong to one another—how interconnected our journeys really are. The moments we’ve been given are intricately joined with the lives and legacies of a thousand generations. We take one step and then the other, often seemingly without end. 

Ours is a breathless, eternal climb.

We are born from darkness, descending into light.

We take a step. And then another. We fall. And then we rise. 

Image 1: Cucuron, Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, France

Image 2: Villeneuve, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, France

Image 3: Le Panier, Marseille, France

Lead Image:  Bormes-les-Mimosas, Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, France

Le Panier, Marseille, France