It's the climb...

Hi!
This past weekend I decided to be more active and so I went hiking.  The morning of, I tried to convince myself that I didn't want to go...that I could not go.  It was too cold.  I had no one to go with.  I was still sniffly.  I hadn't washed my sweats.  My thumb hurt. In the end, I dragged myself out of my cozy bed and got myself ready. 

Hands down, it was the best decision I had made that day.  The hike was so invigorating and the views were breathtaking.  I'm not a nature buff and honestly, I hadn't hiked since I was 8 or so.  This time felt so right.  I stuffed a container of yogurt into one pocket of my puffy pink coat, and my keys and water bottle in another.  Something about the solitude of that morning was so comforting.  Hearing the leaves and twigs crackle under my feet and smelling the cold crisp air made me feel determined to reach the hill's summit. 

Focused

I passed about four people on the trail who nodded me their hellos.  I drank my water when I was thirsty, stopping to take in the full expanse of the trail and the magnitude of the trees.  And I climbed upwards.  At one point, I scraped my palm on a rock and silently cursed myself for clamoring up the incline too hastily.  No bandaid.  My foot got wedged in the narrow crevice of a large rock and I clenched my teeth at the shockwave of pain when I finally wedged it out.  Got to keep going.  After about 60 minutes of starts and stops I made it to the top of the hill.  This is what I saw:

I stood there for about 5 minutes or so to take in the view.  I looked down at my hand.  The blood on my hand had congealed and was now speckled with dirt.  The ankle?  Still hurt.  A smiled played across my lips as I proceeded back down the hill and towards the trail.  I had done it.  My bloodied hand and twisted ankle were proof of my journey.  Sometimes there's pain involved in a journey--that on our way to a destination, we stumble, we falter, and we hesitate.  It's the effect we allow the pain to have on us that, in part, determines how our journey will end. Will you be immobilized by your pain, never to move forward? Or will you wear your pain like a badge of honor knowing that it was earned striving towards something great? I choose the latter...