Journey of Hills

Last Monday, I went out with a friend of mine. We had lunch and went out for a walk afterwards. I live near a creek and park, so it’s always nice to wander around and just relax. There are two rather steep streets leading to the street which leads to my house. One is closer than the other. On that day, my friend and I took the one a bit further away, because it pretty much was continuous from the path we were already on.

Now, walking up this path brought up a lot of memories. See, it never used to be paved. When I was younger,  it was grass and nothing else. And then one day, we woke up and looked outside to find people working there at the end of the street. The result of that, goodness knows how long later, was that it was a nice, clean, white new pavement. My brother and I were super excited, just because it was something new, something that had changed, because nothing ever changed in my area.

So this brand new path hadn’t been there for long at all when we got a brilliant idea: to get our bikes and ride down it. We only had the one, and that was his. But for some reason, we were able to share it for that activity. We could never share before. But when the path came into it? It was a whole different story.

Over the years of our childhood and teenage years, we would go to the top of this path together. We’d go with our bikes, our scooters and even the skateboard which I bought one day to fit in with the other kids at church. And we’d ride down this steep hill, going at alarming speeds (or alarming for us, as we were young) without even a helmet on for safety. Looking back, we were probably a bit stupid to do that, but neither of us got hurt. In fact, any injuries I got came from riding on a flat surface – figure that one out!

Anyway, so this hill…all my memories came coming back when my friend and I walked up it. She mentioned about how steep it was, and I laughed and told her all about how my brother and I had great fun going down it, trying to be faster and faster each time.

It didn’t hit me what that meant until earlier today, when I was once again walking. I had to go to an appointment, so it was quite necessary to trudge my way up yet another horridly steep hill. And I got to thinking: why put myself through that?

The end result, of course. I needed to get to this appointment; it was with a careers councillor and she was going to help me figure out my future. I needed to get there. So it was worth putting up with heat, and the insanely steep hill, to get there.

And then I got to thinking. See, this hill…when we were kids, we’d go down it. And then my brother and I would get to the bottom, and moan and groan about how we had to not only drag ourselves, but our bike/skateboard/scooter up as well. Did want to do it? No. Was it fun? No. Was it hard? Yes. Especially if it was summer, and it generally was the summertime. It seemed to be the only time my brother and I got on, funnily enough – during the winter we’d fight, but during the summer? We’d go outside and play games. I actually miss those times.

Anyway, back to the point of this entry. Now, going up this hill, back then, last week and today, it was hard work. But what would we do when we were kids? Get excited over how steep it was and go down all over again.

The point to this is that sometimes, we’ve got to go up some huge, horribly steep hill. Sometimes that hill is physical, like it was for me today. Sometimes it’s a mental hill, like trying to climb up out of depression or anxiety. Sometimes it’s illnesses or physical injuries.

And sometimes, we moan and groan about how horrible the journey is, how hard it is, and how we want to just give up. But if you are going up a hill, physically, emotionally or otherwise, just remember: there is generally something good waiting at the top, whether it just relief, a solution or…anything else you’re searching for.

So keep on plodding along. Tough journeys suck but we generally have them for a reason: to obtain knowledge, understanding, good health, happiness, anything.

So just keep on going.