Another Lesson Learned.

I was walking up the steep incline thinking about other people who I would like to be doing this with, other places I would like to go, and various areas in my life I'm just discontented with. As I stared at the ground trying to make myself feel sorry, I realized another flaw.

A lot of the time, I live my life always thinking about the next thing. After this party, then what? When coffee is over and we are done talking, what else do I have to do? This way of thinking never allows me to enjoy where I am at any given moment. I am always concerned with what is yet to come.

So, as I was trudging up the mountain, the thought came to me- wherever I am, just be there. Be one hundred percent committed to where I physically and mentally am.

On my dad and my's second hike at Mt. Rainier, I put this theory into action. We climbed to a six thousand foot summit in the saddle of two mountains. The whole time we hiked, I did not once find myself thinking about anything that had consumed me on my first hike.

As we climbed hand over hand to the summit of the mountain, my heart skipped a couple beats,  my breath shortened, and water welled up in my eyes as I beheld the beauty that God created. In that moment, I looked at my dad, then out to the peaks, and joy washed over me like I've never known before.

There are a lot of reasons why I felt joy in that particular moment, but I know that a vast deal of the joy can be attributed to the fact that I was in that moment. My mind was nowhere else. I just was. I was with my dad. Admiring God's creation. Worry free. Joyful.