The Journey

She clawed her way up the steep mountainside.  The rocks she grabbed a hold of crumbled beneath her fingers and she would quickly reach out and take hold of the next root or rock.  Sometimes they would hold, but most of the time they would crumble.

The people at the top of the hill ignored her.  They laughed and congratulated each other on their successes at reaching the top of the hill.  Some of them had found easy paths up the mountainsides while others seemed to have a great deal of help.  But she felt as if she was doing this alone, struggling up the most difficult path of all.

Once in a while, a ray of sun would illuminate her path or a ledge would appear and she could rest for a moment to regain her strength.  After catching her breath, she would look down to see how far she had come and glance up to see how far she had to go. Though, at times, she would slide backwards, she realized that she had come much farther than she believed and looking to the top, she realized how much closer it seemed. It encouraged her enough to keep climbing.

Though she was laughed at and mocked by those taking the easier paths, she sometimes felt the hand of God reaching down and grabbing her just as she wanted to let go.  So she kept making her way up the mountainside, little inch by little inch.

Then finally…one day…she grabbed the last steady rock, pulled herself up and saw the horizon.  She had done it.  She had reached the top!  As she looked about her, she realized that her mountaintop was higher than those that had been laughing at her.  Because she had chosen the more difficult path, she had the better view.  She could see the vast valleys, mountain peaks and ocean spread out in front of her and it was glorious!  She sighed happily, reached her arms above her and drank in the sun.

 

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