While sitting on top of the mountain made of granite and rock , I questioned why it hadn’t sunk into the soft earth that held it in place below me. Could it be that things are not as they seem?
How could the weakness of the soft rain drenched ground hold up such a heavy stone? I looked around and observed the heavens , then questioned how a large man made piece of metal , like an airplane, managed to stay in the air, or how a vessel that weighs tons can stay afloat on the glassy waters of the sea. How is it that things that appear so light can hold up things that appear so powerful and heavy?
I was stuck on the rock, but why was I so willing to remain there when its sharpness sent jolts of pain through me every time I moved or changed positions. I was physically capable of lowering myself to the forgiving softness of the ground, but why didn’t I?
I used to lie on the soft earth and walk in gentle meadows under the warmth of sunlight, breathing in the scent of sweet air after a gentle rain , yet not pause to allow its beauty to tug at my heart. It wasn’t until I was on that mountain of a rock that those days seemed so close, yet so far away. So again, I asked myself, if life placed me there, was it my fate or obligation to remain?
A journey of self-discovery usually begins when life gives us a mountain to climb and we are at a loss how to not only climb it, but how to get off of it when we do. Life certainly has its fair share of rocks and mountains, and I’m sure they serve a purpose. They are like trials and pain. It doesn’t matter how we landed there, but in realizing that wherever we happen to land doesn’t have to be our permanent home. Mountains show up more as teachers than eternal punishments. Reaching the top helps us see things differently and with more clarity. Sometimes our journeys land us in difficult places just long enough to see the things we so often take for granted. There is nothing like a view from a mountain top when we want to witness God’s beautiful creations.
We might mistake our reliance on God and spirituality as a weakness or an excuse for dealing with the honest brutal truth of trials and hardships, but the truth is, God is the strength that can hold us up no matter where we land. The soft whispers of the spirit, the gentle stream of light that flows into our being is much like the soft moist earth that can hold up a mountain. Things aren’t always as they seem, and strength doesn’t always come from the earthly beliefs that we have come to rely on.
It isn’t the mountain that is painful as much as the belief that you can’t move off it. There are times a mountain can provide a shelter from the storm, or be a foundation for a lighthouse on the shore. We all need lighthouses! The skies aren’t always blue over our lives, and storms come and go, but like the light from a lighthouse that shines out into the dark stormy night, survival can come by following it to safety. If you must cling to a rock for a while until the storm passes, it’s good to know you can eventually climb down to once again feel the soft gentle grass under your feet. You can know that as sure as you progress on your journey, the pain of the rock can just as quickly change your terrain from the dark abyss of pain and suffering to the beautiful meadows of peace again, remember though that just as the sun covers you in the warmth of its glow, rains must come to water the meadows.
Our landscapes may change, and storms will still rage, but flowers still bloom and we still grow. We can survive the winters if we learn to take shelter in each other’s arms and allow the gentle embrace of God to cradle us in his care.
Helen Keller wrote: “What we have once enjoyed, we can never lose. All that we love deeply becomes part of us.” Finding our way home through grief and trials usually teaches us that those meadows we long for and those warm rays of sun are not forever lost to us, sometimes we just need to become more aware of them and reach out to grasp onto them. Antoine de Saint Exuperty who wrote the book The Little Prince wrote: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly. That which is essential is invisible to the eye.”
That which is essential is the soft ground that holds the rock, the soft clouds that supports the airplane, and the gentle waters that holds up the ship. That which is essential to healing is God.
A Legitimate Journey 
