Do mountains reveal or stand in your way of the beauty in life?

​I ran 30 miles last weekend at the Oxbow Ultra. For 10.5 hours I tackled 1 five mile loop after another until I'd completed 6 of those loops. It was my furthest run ever. It was the longest I'd ever been on my feet at one time. Walking or running.

Each loop started with a flat 1-mile run around a small lake. As we ran, though, we could see the mountain on the other side of the lake waiting on us. It was hard to get comfortable in that flat mile knowing the next one was straight uphill.

The first lap was the hardest. That climb. Not knowing when and if it would ever end, because let's be clear, when you're in a climb for the first time it DOES FEEL like it will NEVER end.

But it did. Wow did it. As we reached the summit the trees opened and the path widened into one of the most beautiful open highlands a mind can imagine. Memories of the pain from the climb were gone. My mind was suddenly overwhelmed by the artistry in this unexpected find.

Each lap after that first one was easier. Because I knew at the end of each climb, there was artistry.

It made me think about life.

So often we come up against things that are hard. Maybe it's a new venture, a relationship, a project, a hobby or a dream. We get a vision, it looks and sounds flat and doable and worth it and fills us with a spirit of "I can do this!!"

And then we run around the lake and come to the end of the flat part of that vision and hit the mountain.

And we stop. And we stare. And we turn around.......

What would happen if we just took a chance and climbed the challenges in our life. Maybe, just maybe, we'd discover there is something beautiful on the other side. And maybe - maybe that beauty would motivate us to take just one more lap.

And then another.
And another......

Until we're accomplishing things and bringing beauty into the world we never imagined we could.