Taking a peak ahead
Sunday October 10th 2010, 11:10 pm
Filed under: Life

A Sunday School lesson, and the discussion started turning around the short command in the Bible to “Stand in high places.”

“What does that phrase mean to you?” the teacher asked.

I’ve been finding myself going back to that question all day since.

Having gone to college at BYU in the Rocky Mountains, and having just read Greg Mortenson’s book, I find myself drawn to the image of high peaks.

I used to get away from my classes and studying and find release by walking briskly across the bench of the mountain directly facing campus.  Often. To give you an idea: Robert Redford owned a ski resort, Sundance, on the other side of the next peak over. These were not low-lying hills.

A few times, I climbed trails way up into areas where it was probably really stupid to be at certain times of the year, and where I found out later were off limits due to potential avalanches, but as someone from Maryland to whom it was all a novelty, what did I know? I stood under a dripping outcropping and pointed my camera upwards, getting a shot of water falling above and behind me in such a way that my roommates puzzled at its trajectory and which way was supposed to be up in the picture. They couldn’t tell which end the water was coming from.

I went higher.  You can see a lot more of what’s ahead when you take the time to make the effort to do something that doesn’t come easily.

I sat on a boulder, dangling my feet.  (Not a high one.  There are limits to this courage thing as far as heights and I are concerned.)  I remember being surprised that long, narrow Utah Lake looked so blue and so close from up there.  Distances shrank.  The mountains that rose from the far side of the lake, across the valley, you could actually see them, and then peak after peak fading from blue to light gray and off into the distance. All these things that, back down on the valley floor, I knew would disappear from view into the curve of the earth or the buildings of the campus and town.

So far away. So clear as day.

I tell you. God rocks.


8 Comments so far
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Funny you have been pondering this one. Have you looked through the time line of Mr Li Kashing? The company where he worked long hours as a salesman was on “Rise High Street” (there is a picture for 1945). Coincidence? 😉

I love mountains, hills will do, too. Why am I stuck in flatter than a pancake Holland? (oh yes, I chose this job. Righhhht)

Comment by tinebeest 10.10.10 @ 11:47 pm

In 1991 DH and I took our kids to the southwest for vacation. One of the highlights was a horseback ride up a mountain in Colorado. When we reached the peak we were over 10,000 feet altitude and the view of the Continental Divide over 100 miles away (I think that’s what the guide told us)was breathtaking! I had tears in my eyes admiring the Majesty that God had created.

Comment by Jody 10.11.10 @ 5:58 am

Nature is beautiful. I love our little foothills around here, but we REALLY bonded with Sedona too, looking at the world from atop a red rock.

Comment by Channon 10.11.10 @ 6:41 am

I live at the base of Pikes Peak — I am daily reminded why Katharine Lee Bates wrote “oh beautiful, for spacious skies…for purple mountain’s majesty” and it helps me rise above the sometimes ugly behavior of some of the people here

I would love to see that photo you took from that ledge — it sounds like it would be a wonderful thing to capture as a fiber art piece!

Comment by Bev 10.11.10 @ 7:30 am

Yes! Absolutely beautiful mountains! One year Amalie and I took an extended trip through Yellowstone, The Tetons, down through Colorado on our way to New Mexico. Somewhere along the line we learned that Zebulon Pike never did get to the top of the mountain that’s named after him. And since then I’ve thought the mountain should have been named Pikes Pique.

Comment by Don Meyer 10.11.10 @ 8:55 am

It feels like a life time ago. I used to go to school full time, for my teaching credential, worked part time, and ran a 5 person household. And sometimes it would get to be a bit much. So I would walk up to the top level of the School of Ed building, look over the San Jose landscape, and the foothill, and say a prayer of thanks that I had the strength to do it.
Standing on a high place does interesting things for your perspective on life.

Comment by Gigi 10.11.10 @ 10:42 am

I live in the driftless region of Wisconsin, we have no mountains,but we have hills and cliffs and beautiful views. We have Gilbralter rock near here,a beautiful view. Benches to sit on to get away.

Comment by Kris 10.11.10 @ 5:28 pm

Standing on tall shoulders can make you look like a giant, when all that happened was you had help. 😉

Comment by Karen L 10.13.10 @ 3:32 pm



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