I’ve decided, life is not just like, it is an exact replica of hiking.

Obvs, I’m not talking about some relaxing hike. I’m talking full on, let me take on this here lovely mountain and kick some ass.

I came to this conclusion, as I was hemming, and hawing my way through the North Country Trails. Read: that’s huffing and puffing and sludging my thunder thighs up and down. Only to be met face to face with up. Again and again.

I cursed those damn trails. I cursed myself. I silently cursed Brother. What THE HELL were we thinking? WHY do I get these loco ideas of having to go a minimum of 10 miles? I must be certifiable to do this to myself.

Just as I’d want to complain or question what in God’s creation we were doing, I’d reach the top of some monstrous hill. Hit with the overwhelming beauty of surveying your surroundings from up high.

And instantly, I’d forget. All about the previous 30 minutes or two hours, or however long it was. It didn’t even matter. This mattered. This beauty. Feeling as though I had accomplished something, that while I couldn’t ever quantify it, it was there.

As the temporary euphoria would start to wear off, I’d be ready. Filled with a sudden energy burst and enthusiasm for the unknown that lay ahead of us. Knowing it was going to be pure torture at times, pushing me to my physical limitations, but also knowing it would be worth it — more than worth it.

I felt like I was chasing expansion. Expansion of me, a dream; of life.

Horrible lows and super high highs. Only to have to face the low low. The up and down. It was consistent in that promise of more and not quite there.

Of knowing you’re about to experience something so beautiful, that is meant to be appreciated, then left. Moving on and moving forward — to new heights and challenges. Only to re-experience that same beauty.

And then you’re at the end. You felt the whole time that each hour was more like days and then the end arrives and it feels so quick, too quick. Already over?

You’re surprised at your heavy, nostaligic heart. You know it wasn’t really all that bad. In fact, it was kinda easy. And so worth it. You’d do it all over again in a heartbeat.

And you do. You turn around, this time a little more secure in what’s coming. A little more trusting of yourself, yet there are still unknown variables that remain.

But you keep going, because that’s what you do. It’s the only thing to do. And you feel tired. You want to curse it all over again. So you do a few times.

Till you reach that first climb. The one that could knock you over with it’s stunning view, its picturesque snapshot of nature.

This time, you don’t stop as long. Because you know. There’s more and it gets better and it never ends. Sure, you’re a little afraid of those long descents to the low that mean the hard hill, but you also know how well worth the peak is.

This is what we do, isn’t it? Our highest highs and our lowest lows. We’re constantly moving along. Sometimes we might be at different high/low places, but we all go through them. It’s just how it is.

And our assurance that it’s all worth it, are our stirring moments of the pristine. But we know, even that is fleeting, because more awaits.

More will always await. That’s just it. We never finish. There is no end. Expansion of life at its finest. All for that promise of what waits at the top.