What's Your Hill?
Today I am grateful for tiger balm for achy muscles and the ease of sending a gift to someone else's doorstep with a few clicks on my computer.
I have hills on my mind. We live in a river town and hills go with the territory. I grew up in the rolling hills of northeast Iowa. I am thinking about those hills and my parents and siblings this morning.
As long as I have been a runner, I have been running hills. Yesterday, Darcy and I had a nice run together. The last portion of our route took us up one of the toughest hills in town, less than a mile from home. We sometimes avoid this hill on purpose, and we can always give ourselves a flatter route when on shorter runs. But we run plenty of hills and they are good for us and our training.
Yesterday we hit it straight on. I never walk up this hill. Damned if I am going to let a hill stop me. It might slow me down, but walk? I'll show that hill who is in charge.
There are the hills of life though that aren't as easy to tackle. That don't simply require putting one foot in front of the other. They require far more mettle and grit because they are about far more than physically traversing a climb. They are mental, emotional, and spiritual climbs as well.
Unlike us choosing a different running route so we can avoid some hills, life circumstances sometimes put nothing but hills in front of us. Formidable hills. Steep hills. What's your hill in life right now? What challenge is front and center, looming large?
Whatever it is, a step forward, inspiration from within or without, a personal pep talk, and some faith in a Great Spirit can help get us each to the next step. That is precisely how any hill is climbed. A step, a moment, at a time.
I have hills on my mind. We live in a river town and hills go with the territory. I grew up in the rolling hills of northeast Iowa. I am thinking about those hills and my parents and siblings this morning.
As long as I have been a runner, I have been running hills. Yesterday, Darcy and I had a nice run together. The last portion of our route took us up one of the toughest hills in town, less than a mile from home. We sometimes avoid this hill on purpose, and we can always give ourselves a flatter route when on shorter runs. But we run plenty of hills and they are good for us and our training.
Yesterday we hit it straight on. I never walk up this hill. Damned if I am going to let a hill stop me. It might slow me down, but walk? I'll show that hill who is in charge.
There are the hills of life though that aren't as easy to tackle. That don't simply require putting one foot in front of the other. They require far more mettle and grit because they are about far more than physically traversing a climb. They are mental, emotional, and spiritual climbs as well.
Unlike us choosing a different running route so we can avoid some hills, life circumstances sometimes put nothing but hills in front of us. Formidable hills. Steep hills. What's your hill in life right now? What challenge is front and center, looming large?
Whatever it is, a step forward, inspiration from within or without, a personal pep talk, and some faith in a Great Spirit can help get us each to the next step. That is precisely how any hill is climbed. A step, a moment, at a time.
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