Climbing Mountains
Something quite spectacular has happened this week.
I am still sick. Sooooo sick. I hate being sick. Nothing irritates me more than being sick. I drink disgusting concoctions of vinegar and lemon juice on the daily, to prevent me from suffering with colds and flu and it usually works like a charm, except this time. I would say this is my first horrible virus in years.
Spencer is doing better for the most part. Shelbie is fairing the best out of everyone (which is telling in and of itself) and Sam is experiencing the tail end of pneumonia, technically Mycoplasma which is an antibiotic resistant form of pneumonia! I think I forgot to mention this in the past couple of posts. His energy is coming back but his lungs are still crackly and congested 10 days out on an antibiotic.
Nice way to start the new year right?
Actually, I'm not complaining.
I remembered an article I read in the New York Times, quite some time ago by Alison Levine. She is a mountain climber. She has climbed 7 summits and skied to both Poles; North and South. She sounds like she probably knows what she's talking about when it comes to climbing mountains. She shared her experience in climbing Mt. Everest. It took her two months just to get to Camp 2 from Base camp.
She would start at Base and climb to Camp 1. From Camp 1, she would turn around and head back to Base and do that over and over, for several days. Then, after a period of time, she would stay at Camp 1 and climb from Camp 1 to Camp 2, then back to Camp 1. Back and forth, day in and day out, so on and so forth; a slow way to make progress. Incidentally, it took Alison Levine 8 years of training for Mt. Everest before she was able to reach the summit. In 2002, she made it to within 300' of the summit but had to turn back. She finally reached her goal and the summit of Mt. Everest in 2010!
I thought about this technique in the trials we face and how we handle them. It seems, at least in my life, no sooner do we experience a moment of enlightenment that helps push us on through the adversity we have spent months wrestling with, that a new trial is added upon. Rather than ascending on up through that trial, there is an inevitable backsliding as we scramble to find out footing again. It seems as though all we do is take one step forward and several steps back; always a starting over it seems. A myriad of self-shaming thoughts trample through our minds and we feel defeated, deflated, and despair.
In past years, when trouble strikes in the new year, I grumble through, irritated and frustrated at another setback. I never thought that the backslide, the starting over is perhaps where we gain our greatest traction to keep going. As Levine points out, her technique of going up and down the mountain, over and over is what acclimates her to the mountain terrain and atmosphere.
When we take our few steps back, as we pick up a new mountain of our own to climb, we are getting to know the terrain of our trials. We come to see what we are made of. Our strength increases with each stretch of our heart. Fears give way to courage. We begin to recognize that we have been here before and we can do it again. Step after difficult step, we ascend. We rise. We fall.
Of that experience, she said, "If you only pursue challenges you know you can accomplish, you're never going achieve anything worthwhile."
2019 is starting out back at Base Camp in many ways. We will slow down, catch our breath, ride out the storm and gear up for the next climb. Life is one big challenge and it's not certain what we will be able to accomplish here, but if we keep at, in the end, we will summit. That's already a guarantee. So, off we climb...it's quite a spectacular thing to consider and big switch for me.
I am still sick. Sooooo sick. I hate being sick. Nothing irritates me more than being sick. I drink disgusting concoctions of vinegar and lemon juice on the daily, to prevent me from suffering with colds and flu and it usually works like a charm, except this time. I would say this is my first horrible virus in years.
Spencer is doing better for the most part. Shelbie is fairing the best out of everyone (which is telling in and of itself) and Sam is experiencing the tail end of pneumonia, technically Mycoplasma which is an antibiotic resistant form of pneumonia! I think I forgot to mention this in the past couple of posts. His energy is coming back but his lungs are still crackly and congested 10 days out on an antibiotic.
Nice way to start the new year right?
Actually, I'm not complaining.
I remembered an article I read in the New York Times, quite some time ago by Alison Levine. She is a mountain climber. She has climbed 7 summits and skied to both Poles; North and South. She sounds like she probably knows what she's talking about when it comes to climbing mountains. She shared her experience in climbing Mt. Everest. It took her two months just to get to Camp 2 from Base camp.
She would start at Base and climb to Camp 1. From Camp 1, she would turn around and head back to Base and do that over and over, for several days. Then, after a period of time, she would stay at Camp 1 and climb from Camp 1 to Camp 2, then back to Camp 1. Back and forth, day in and day out, so on and so forth; a slow way to make progress. Incidentally, it took Alison Levine 8 years of training for Mt. Everest before she was able to reach the summit. In 2002, she made it to within 300' of the summit but had to turn back. She finally reached her goal and the summit of Mt. Everest in 2010!
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| They were so little! |
I thought about this technique in the trials we face and how we handle them. It seems, at least in my life, no sooner do we experience a moment of enlightenment that helps push us on through the adversity we have spent months wrestling with, that a new trial is added upon. Rather than ascending on up through that trial, there is an inevitable backsliding as we scramble to find out footing again. It seems as though all we do is take one step forward and several steps back; always a starting over it seems. A myriad of self-shaming thoughts trample through our minds and we feel defeated, deflated, and despair.
In past years, when trouble strikes in the new year, I grumble through, irritated and frustrated at another setback. I never thought that the backslide, the starting over is perhaps where we gain our greatest traction to keep going. As Levine points out, her technique of going up and down the mountain, over and over is what acclimates her to the mountain terrain and atmosphere.
When we take our few steps back, as we pick up a new mountain of our own to climb, we are getting to know the terrain of our trials. We come to see what we are made of. Our strength increases with each stretch of our heart. Fears give way to courage. We begin to recognize that we have been here before and we can do it again. Step after difficult step, we ascend. We rise. We fall.
Of that experience, she said, "If you only pursue challenges you know you can accomplish, you're never going achieve anything worthwhile."
2019 is starting out back at Base Camp in many ways. We will slow down, catch our breath, ride out the storm and gear up for the next climb. Life is one big challenge and it's not certain what we will be able to accomplish here, but if we keep at, in the end, we will summit. That's already a guarantee. So, off we climb...it's quite a spectacular thing to consider and big switch for me.
I had never considered that point of view, either. That's awesome.
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