Today I hiked up a mountain. I could just barely get away with it, without having poles and cramp-ons, or snowshoes. The trail up Day Mt. was pretty clear of ice though and I made it to the top, broke out above tree-line, and took a great gulping breath of the air of high places.
There is something about climbing a mountain that makes the spirit soar within me. I don’t know what it is, and it’s funny because it doesn’t matter if the mountain is 400 or 4,000 feet. The feeling is the same. A great upward lift, an exaltation, a magnificent well-being. Closer to God, closer to myself, closer to everything around me. A feeling that encompasses all of that.
Going up the mountain, all the garbage and troubles and stresses that I haul around with me get thrown off my back – too heavy to carry! And when I come down the mountain, that lightness stays with me, and I smile for no reason and find myself unwilling to pick up my burdens again, because I don’t need them anyway. High places – the best medication.
I need to get high more often!
what we have here is a failure to communicate 
Heh. I sure do too! It’s been too long for me in a state full of huge mountains without climbing one! The time just seems to elude us these days!
By: amateurish on January 23, 2008
at 8:55 pm