After supper, my youngest and I climb mountains.
No, not the mountains that you’re thinking of – but our metaphorical mountains are both physical and mental, real and imaginative. And these mountains are both big and small. But scaling mountains is never about the magnitude of the climb but the heart, mind and soul of the climber.
The physical mountains we climb are actually just the snow piles in the park. But for my daughter, and her creative state of mind, we’re somewhere north of Missoula on the edge Bitterroot range.
We walk and talk, look and listen, climb and sit and rest and ponder.
The other night, we were both laying on the side of one of the mountains looking at the sky, the clouds and the sunset.
And often times, she’ll begin on a conscious stream of thoughts woven into questions and observations. But that night, while gazing at the sky, she remarked:
“. . . You know what Dad? If there weren’t clouds and a sunset in the sky or some trees on the horizon it would just be a big blue nothing. . . They all come together and make it so beautiful. . . And . . . You know what Dad, I think God made the stars to remind us how small we are.”
And it was in that moment, under the limitless sky on our mini mountain, when I realized she was right.
