The people on top of the mountain did not fall there.
-- Author Unknown

No, the people who have taken on the mountain have climbed to its peak step by step and slope by slope.

At the foot of the mountain, the people found themselves stuck in the weighty dust of desolation and the impenetrable mud of confusion and suffering. The air there was murky and cast a shadow of fear and isolation upon those ground dwellers. Walking in endless circles, digging themselves in deeper, and treading more conflict and disorder onto their shoes and into their lives, they decided there was nowhere to go but up. There had to be something better further up.

They began to climb over the sharp rocks near the base of the mountain, rocks that felt like soul piercings that tore at the very core of who they believed themselves to be. The rocks scratched through the surfaces of facades they’d carried and caused those fronts to bleed, open wide, and swiftly ooze the posturing upon which they were built. Now, some, finding it impossible to live without that public face, slid back down the bumpy mountain, bruising and scarring themselves, and accepting their lot, at least for the time being. The others who’d weathered the loosening of the pretentiousness continued their climb, their load lighter and less indistinct.

As they traveled on, they took many breaks. During those times of rest from strenuous, back-breaking climbing over and between the many obstacles that had taken root and formed boulders in their thinking, they discovered wonderful and empowering essentials about themselves. Things like awesome creativity, a love of nature and all things natural, and a desire to help others and do more than take up space on earth. With each new discovery, the people were able to climb further up the mountain. Some, stuck on amassing only a little knowledge – for acquiring a lot required regular climbs into the vales and deep holes of the mountain – stayed put near the subpeaks of the mountain, satisfied and snug at that place, at least for a while. The others, rested, well-preserved, and blooming, continued upward, their eyes searching for the parent pinnacle they believed just around the corner of the mountain.

Around many of the mountains’ corners, the people found a mishmash of trials to vanquish. There was a great deal of truth-telling, honesty, and speaking up; lots of emotional upheaval and repair. There was shedding, shedding of excuses that once sounded rational but were really only self-serving and horrendously limiting. There was the simple shedding of things that never fit in the first place, like the expensive, must-have but never worn Italian leather shoes – 2 sizes too small that hurt coming out of the store, the ones people believed would eventually stretch and someday conform to their feet – to the detaching of people who they thought with a little prodding and coercion would also stretch, match, measure up, and play the necessary games to meet their specific needs and desires. Around the mountain, the people vowed to do more than the minimum, shatter complacency and embrace constructive action, meticulously challenge standards and tradition in pursuit of excellence, and intentionally set and meet goals once believed unattainable. Some got caught up in the intensity of the realities and pledges at these higher elevations and couldn’t make it any further, deciding instead to take a seat where they were, at least for a little while. Others kept hiking along gathering momentum from the less crowded altitudes.

At the next point, fatigue set in. Many on the mountain forgot to breathe through the thrashing that only such a steep and slippery mountain as this could offer; many others fell out of step, lost their hold of might, and slid back to the bottom. On the ground and discouraged, many of the people never looked up again or took another step toward the mountain; others remembered their previous course and quickly regained their footing. Others never lost their grip in the first place, steadily snaking doggedly through the uncertainties, fears, and slumps they faced on that mountain.

Some of those fears included failure and its repercussions; success and its requirements; the vulnerabilities attached to letting others get close; inadequacy and its stagnant nature; and the perceived finality of dying. If the people were ever to reach the top of the mountain, each of their fears must be examined, no matter the magnitude or significance of those apprehensions. This leg of the mountain was the hardest, many gave up at this point. Only a few remained. Those who stayed on course and worked through the pain of chiseling away doubt experienced in return freshness, reconciliation, and atonement with themselves that could only come from forgiving themselves for believing they at any time were small, inadequate, and incapable of moving on this mountain.

After many years – for a trek up a mountain of this size and scale very possibly requires the expedition of a lifetime – the people became stronger, bounding each new obstacle with grace and maturity only afforded by concerted mountain climbing, and getting closer and closer to that sought-after pinnacle. They’ve not all made it there yet, for the heavens are higher for some than others. But with each dig into the mountain, they are closer to it, better for it, and more alive with abundance because of it.

Sadiqqa © 2008