I’m writing this blog from my quaint cabin in the mountains of Idaho after an amazing “second honeymoon,” a gorgeous wedding celebrating our friends, and an endless amount of fun. It’s been a bit since I’ve blogged (I blame the craziness of getting married) but here I am — back and hopefully better than ever!
First off, if you haven’t been to *scenic* Idaho, find a reason to go. Book a cabin and just surround yourself with the most pure beauty you could ever imagine and know that your soul will be refreshed at the end of it.
Tyler and I decided to hike today for our last full day here. The sweet gal at the information center said it was a 3 mile hike. I assumed 3 miles roundtrip. I also assumed it wouldn’t be straight up the entire time. Silly me. We were headed to a mountaintop with 360 degree views of Garden Valley and I thought it would be fairly “easy.” OOPS.
I think today was a great metaphor for many periods of time in life. Starting over a career or relationship, relocating homes, grieving the loss of a family member, etc. You’re at the bottom (or beginning), staring at how far you have to go to get through, and it just hits you that you know it will be one of the hardest things you’ve ever done. I stared up at the looming mountain and for a split second I thought, “It would be so much better to just go sit in the hot tub.” Ugh, MacKenzie. That’s the easy way out… You can do this. So, we started our journey up….to the most incredible sight I’ve ever seen at almost 5,000 feet above sea level.
It’s an absolutely incredible moment when you (finally) get to the top, but one of my favorite parts of our hike was a stop midway through. (The stop was totally for the view FYI… not to catch our breath or anything). I thought I could see the top of the mountain just ahead of us (I was wrong, we weren’t close). I knew we had “just a little bit longer to push through” but was shocked when I looked behind me at what I had just climbed. WOW. You go, girl. Pushing through those cramps in your side and practically running up that mountain (ha!).
I realized today that it’s so easy to lose sight of the end goal and “top of the mountain” as you push on, climbing as hard as you can, facing obstacle after obstacle (in my case, the fact I typically skip cardio…). It’s so important to always look back at where you came from, where you began your story. I drew more energy and motivation from stopping to look back at the bottom and the rest of the hike flew by. I felt better that second half of the hike – I knew I was strong enough to get to the top after a small reminder I’d already come so far. I hope we can all slow down and take just a minute to look back on the people we once were. May we all draw strength from the past to endure the climbs ahead of us.
*cue Miley Cyrus*
Life is so good, people! Happy climbing!
-MacKenzie
