Our Mountains
There are no longer an overwhelming amount of mountains to climb. Yes, there is still an endless amount to consider, but the numbers don’t seem to wear on me the way they used to. Maybe it’s because my legs are a little longer and toughened by the miles that are behind me.
Maybe it’s because I am confident in my tools and gear I now know to carry with me. Or I could just have become so delusional and in awe of the incredible odds my life has gambled me into that most things don’t bother me none and things harm me none at all. Where it all started was the same as anyone else, I was living in my own bubble unaware of anything outside of my nuclear life; my family of two parents, a younger sister, then another younger sister. Good aunts and uncles and other secondary family members, a mix of school and sport-related friends and activities along with neighborhood families and people was the medley upon which I could reference life. It was always easy to see this world was complex. Even at a young age, I could see the world being a complicated and in some cases, completely insane place, but the nucleus of my life made sense in my juvenile years. It made sense because every emotion I acted upon created an understandable reaction. Every emotion I acted upon was unfiltered and natural during my adolescence, a liberty that I had no idea would transform as I aged. The mountains that were heading my way were unbeknownst to me. Mountains made of intricate emotional development and strange mental growth. Mountains that met rivers made of pure spirit flowing in between the valleys of my life, carving through what I had been in a continuous flow towards what we all are.
The rivers of my life are of the same force and energy as everyone else’s, only sometimes, the rivers of our lives travel between different mountains, bringing with them the ethos of the rainwaters collected once droplets reached from the peaks of these behemoths to the base, finally joining the rivers that thousand and millions of others have already joined. These mountains are not ours alone to forage, but sometimes it truly feels that way. In a sense, it feels like we travel the same passage, cascading and elevating along the very same paths yet the course we travel is on a different plane and only finally feels shared once we get to the bottom of things, where we rest assure right before joining the river. The chances of ever making it to the river’s side never feels guaranteed and that’s because it isn’t, not for free at least. The only reason a mountain can stay alive is because it does everything in it’s power to stand tall and bare the best it can for everything a part of it to thrive. Every piece of its environment is willing to turn towards the sun, root deeper into the earth, show up in the moonlight, and change with the seasons. Every piece of me is becoming the same way, giving me the strength of the mountain and the purpose mirroring the very landscape I continue to call my greatest challenge. I realize now, and did not have this insight as a child, that we are all in the same environment and not just in the primary nuclear ecosystem we believe to be in during our naive years. Every single one of us shares this environment no matter where our mountain is located and what makes up that mountain, for that mountain is in range with the next one forever interconnected no matter how far the travel is to witness the next.
Every mountain is based on the same elements, meaning every person has the same wishes and challenges in this world. The differences in the mountains, or the nuances to our particular wishes and challenges, do vary based on location, time of life, and body we drive, yet there will always be a few exact similarities. Like the sensation to continue. The drive to connect. The purpose of defining belonging. I equip myself with this empathy as to continuously say, “We are all the same”. We are all human, living this human experience, all looking for the rivers that connect us to the bigger picture. Humanity is a wonderful thing harshly fragmented by the ego and self-serving interests. This is why all benign religions and worthwhile philosophies say, “love thy neighbor” for if we care not to support our fellow peoples and accept only ourselves, then there is no building a world that is meant for everyone. The terror that individuality has sickened the world with spites neighbors against each other with claims of a superior way of living guided by their own version of altruism. The mountains that we climb may be our own, but they combine to a much larger journey we all share. This is why we must join in the rivers and pool together after taking on the brunt of our own growth. We can then navigate together with shared discernment the best way for all of us to survive and thrive, travel in likened groups unified in shared prosperity because we all want and deserve the same things; health, happiness, and freedom. There is no caveat, no stringed pricetag to these qualities, not when we are in agreeance with the fact that it is an equivocal, life-given right to attain each of these. We are all deserving of health so we may find more mountains to climb and find others who too are challenging mountains. We are all deserving of happiness in the sense that it is attainable through our pursuit in making the best version of ourselves possible. We are all deserving of freedom no matter what benign endeavor we pride ourselves in pursuing. We must not forget these life-given rights are rights for everyone and coincidingly everything. We must elevate never at the expense of others but rather in courtesy and respect of each other for we are then always in courtesy and respect of ourselves.
Our self-love shines from the mountain peaks and the mountain bases and the mountain passages and the rivers between the mountains every time we say, “This is for every soul including my own.” We are not machines meant to reduce the sensitivities of the world into nonfunctional qualities that serve only databases rather than each other. We are not nutshells waiting to be cracked by a code and cornered into a corroding system in consolidation for trepidacious capitalism. We are of the earth, connected to each other for a higher purpose. I forget the higher purpose sometimes because, in the dimmest of passages, all I can see is through the filter of my hopes and the light of my purpose. To be a successful help is my hope. To be abundantly kind is my purpose. To elevate these qualities to the greatest good is my mission. These sages are the guidance I hold to when the passage makes me unaware of the river I have joined and the struggles of the mountain are all I can see. These wisdoms are the truths I attach to when the light seems to grow farther away when the path seems to stretch longer than long. The peace I can conjure in a moment is the torch I equip myself with in confidence that night is nothing to be afraid of but rather rejoiced in. The peace I can conjure in a moment is the shade I find myself with in confidence as the day breaths dry and hot and becomes something to marvel in. The current is something I look for in the ecosystem of people when the energy is static and asking for a benign push. When the environment has become stagnant again, I realize I am amidst mountains, not rivers. When the sensation of flow is but a sprinkle, I know to look inward and see my own light as guidance back to the waters of life. When the air has become stagnant, filled with disruption I know and remember to open myself up as the way to reembark again on the waters the mountains have so proudly sweat. I am just like you, forgetting and remembering I am the river, the mountain, the passage, and the pool. I am too sharing this journey able and willing, shifting towards a better environment, rooted in healthier values, updating outdated feelings, and outlawing all unacceptable versions of myself. I am affording myself, the best version of myself. I wish this for all of us for everyone is one of a kind. The humankind.
