The Gift of Valleys and Mountaintops

Positive Pensées

Katrin  Pensée

“Mountaintops are for views and inspiration, but fruit is grown in the valleys.”

Billy Graham

High up on the mountain, you can see very far. 

The valley, the trees, and the vegetation that spreads far and wide

But to get up that mountain, you have to climb.

Climb from the valley, where everything grows.

Without the valley, we would not have the mountaintop.

The land would be flat, and the eye could not see the glory that is seen from the top.

Realize, dear reader, that to gain that majestic view

You have to spend time in the valley to toil, to dig, and to renew.

Learn the lesson, sing the song, and grow in discipline and grace.

So that you can scale another mountain and find new inspiration to climb to a new and higher place.

When our kids were little, we were pretty strapped for cash. We were young, had six children, and were just trying to make ends meet. One of the activities that we did regularly that was free was hiking. We would look for trails in our area that had a good, steep climb to wear out our quiver full. We had a few favorite places that we would frequent. Some of the kids looked forward to our hikes. They ran up the trail with delight. But one of our children, namely the youngest, despised this behavior very vocally. Words like, “You go! Leave me behind!” were uttered along with, “I can go no longer; I am too tired!” We have a picture of her being carried up by our friends because, in so much drama, she collapsed to the ground and refused to go any further. When one of our twin boys was asked to draw a picture of a family activity, he drew us hiking. Everyone was happy except our youngest. Above her head there was a thought bubble that said, “WHY?!” He wrote, “This is our family hiking.” “And Miriam is, of course, complaining.” This was so funny that my husband scanned it to keep in our family memories. Without fail, with her complaining and whining, when we made it to the top, she would ask to be picked up so she could see all around her. Her little eyes got very big because, with all of that weeping and gnashing of teeth, she got to see the lake below. Of course, as we hiked down the hill, she rarely complained because that was the easy part. I don’t remember any hike when she was a kid where the theatrics weren’t epic.On one of our hikes, she was carrying on until her dad saw a snake. My husband grew up in the woods; he can tell the good snakes from the bad snakes with ease. He saw that it was a good snake and walked over. It was a black racer. As he came closer, the snake slithered very quickly off to the lake, with my husband walking behind. This made her both scream and laugh. Fast forward several years, and those hikes helped her when she went to a military prep academy. That installment of “don’t give up until you are at the top” was with her when she was running many miles, doing push-ups, and other rugged exercises that are required by the military. This tiny girl was one of ten young people selected from across the country to attend this military prep academy via a new scholarship program for the United States Navy. Seven were boys, and three were girls. At the end of the cycle, she was the only female to make it. All because she understood that to get to the top, you have to start in the valley and climb, sometimes kicking and screaming, to the top. The hard work, the perseverance, the soreness of the muscles, the training of the mind, and the discipline make the view from the top glorious. When we attended her graduation, she truly was a strong, fierce young woman, ready to start her next phase of training in life. Through that trip, she made some lifelong friends and learned some valuable lessons, and now she is training the young folks that are about to make the journey to the prep academy. Those mountains are glorious. But those valleys are there to help us make the climb. One of our favorite movies at our house is The Sound of Music.  One of the songs is called, “Climb Every Mountain.” In the song, the nun talks to Maria about climbing every mountain, searching high and low. Follow every byway, every path you know. All that climbing is to find that dream, which will need all the love you can give. Follow that mountain, keep climbing until you find your dreams.  When you reach those dreams remember the valley and what it had to teach you to climb even higher next time.