Sore from the struggle

Last night I was lucky enough to join a beautiful group of spirited rock climbers in Clear Creek Canyon. It was a beautiful night, sun kissed with the last hours of the warm July sun. Two lines were quickly set up (thank you Tyler and J for your agile climbing skills) and I was subsequently tied in just as quickly, rope through harness tied off with a double figure 8..... breathe

Although the routes were both 5.8 an easy start for us regular rock gym monkeys, nature invaded from all corners, filling the nostrils, lining the underside of the fingernails, scrapping the knees, adding a whole new sensation to a very routine activity. The heart pounding, the feet and fingers finding the rock, the body slowly climbing vertically.... breathe

The top, like the last bands of sun rays was warm, inviting, and breathtaking. My arms today, vibrating with fatigue and taxed from the strain are reminding me of the growth after a struggle.

Some mountains in life will be high, the boulders hard to cross, the vertical climb slow. Your fingernails will get dirty, your knees will get scrapped, but I promise the top, bathed in light will be worth the climb. You will feel it the next day, week or even months after, the growth through change. However, once you take that first step you have taken the hardest move on the climb. After all we can't get to some place we have never been if we never try things we have never done.

I encourage you today to take that first step up the climb you have in your life. Maybe like me it will be tied into a marmot harness with 70 meters of rope just begging to be played with.  I promise you will be sore, this time, but those muscles you are stretching, training, using will be all the stronger next time and you too can climb the next route, challenge or obstacle with a smile feeling how much easier it gets when you keep at it.