The Mrs Club

Tuesday, August 12, 2008 To the Mountain...and beyond.

Today I climbed a mountain.

Literally.

Near where I live there is a mountain...a 2 mile hike up that can be grueling in places. I have climbed it quite a few times before, it never is easy but it gets easier each time.

The first time I started to climb this piece of imposing rock, I got winded a quarter of the way and decided that it would be detrimental to my life to continue.
The second time I got about halfway and decided to celebrate my wins and save some climbing for next time.
The third time I was determined to reach the top.
There is a part that is so steep they have provided handrails. While climbing that part my heart threatened to jump out of my chest and sit down. I had to call on Jesus more than a few times, startling the oyibo lady next to me, I mention the fact that she was oyibo because African Americans tend to be very used to random shouts of Jesus, in fact had she been black she might have said, "amen sister, amen".
But I digress.
After I got through the steep part. I had to rest. Many people walked by me, an old wiry man with a walking stick, a toddler skipped along with her teddy. A pregnant lady who didn't look it, a heavy set women who did. Two teenage boys with a ?boombox - they apparently just came from the 80's. None of them were breathing as heavily as I.
"Come on sister, you can do it" I looked up to see two black sistah's in their pink and green workout ensembles... I smiled. Well skeewee doggone it I CAN do it! So I continued and huffed and puffed my way to the top and when I finally got there I fell on my knees and thanked God for not letting me die on the way.

I sat there reflecting on how much life is like this mountain.
It is hard work. Maybe there is something you know you need to do. Some dream you want to accomplish but it sits in front of you like an imposing stone. You can't go around it. Got to hike it. You've got to push through the tough parts and you have to pace yourself when it seems easy. Either way you have got to keep moving.

There was a time when my life seemed like it was refusing direction. I would make this plan, it would make its own. My husband and I would plan for such and such on this date and then things would not work out. Some days I would wake up and like many of my sisters and brothers when the day dealt with me, I would say Na wa O, anyway I thank God.
People would ask me, "How far now? What's up with this or that? When are you going to do x,y or z?" I had no answers. At some point I started to get frustrated.

There is a point at the mountain when you can feel trapped if you allow it. To go up, problem, to go down, problem. Some people just sit there and sigh.
Today I know of brilliant people who are sitting there. They can't see their way forward and they can't see where they came from. Forget the rock, they have become one with the rock.
When I look at these women I want to cry with them, I want to shake them, I want to shout Oya! We can't sit here forever, we have got to make a move! The mountain is not going to get any smaller and the path won't get any easier. Oya, ngwa! kunye! Get up!

Wikpedia says Inertia means a body in motion tends to stay in motion and a body at rest tends to stay at rest. So the question is which one are you?
My friend tells me she has lost her passion, she doesn't know what to do? My dearest. This is for you. Put one foot in front of the other. I know you don't think you can go the distance but this you can do. I know you don't think you know where you are going but all you have to do is put one foot in front of the other. Get in motion. Make a move.

Trust me. I speak from experience. When you don't know what to do, don't lay down in despair. No O! Get up, face the day and deal with the basics, get in motion and before you know it, your life will be spinning on its axis, creating its own gravity, drawing your dreams to you. Filling your life with passion, making room for possibility.

Na so I come reach the top of this mountain and I took in the view and I thanked God for getting me through. I looked down at the path I had come up and I was amazed. I had come that far?
Yes! and all I did was put one foot in front of the other!

Be well, be blessed.

Posted by Naija Babe :: 12:07 PM :: 5 comments