Mountain top outlooks are gorgeous. Growing up near the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in Kentucky I hiked to many mountain tops. Rarely did the view disappoint, which made the journey to their summits worth the effort. At the pinnacle of each mountain, I could appreciate the view, and the path required to reach my peak destination. Mountain tops are a great illustration of life too.
Within the journey of life, we each experience a host of paths and obstacles towards our eventual destination. Challenges might be steep hills, tight trails, or various animals like snakes. These adversities cause us to question our need to continue our journey. We must weigh the risk over the reward. After all, the view might not even be worth the trip. Though if we only desire a beautiful view, then our journey is already wasted.
No, a mountain peak both literal and in the journey of life is not just about the view we see. Rather, it’s about understanding and appreciating the path taken to one’s current outlook. It’s at the mountain top we can understand, appreciate, and see our past obstacles with appreciation. This 20/20 hindsight lets us reframe the good and the bad of our journey into even more optimism. We may look back and be frustrated that we didn’t handle an issue with more grace, calm, or poise. However, such self-criticism is not the point because it’s a journey into our negativity.
No, our point is that we are to use our accomplished outlook with appreciation. We can rejoice that we handled things as well as we did. Then we can choose to learn from our mistakes. We learn because we are reframing our past errors towards future hope. That’s the beauty of the mountain top. Not that we see something we’ve never seen before, but now see both the big picture of the past while we view the beauty of our future. Let’s then journey through our paths in life because a beautiful perspective is just over the horizon.
