Mountains

Everyone is climbing one. Sometimes they’re mountains that the world can see - the ones that look like success and achievement - but usually those are not the biggest and hardest kind to climb. The biggest and the hardest are the ones no one sees.

I wish I could tell you about all of the mountains this girl has climbed. I wish I could express just how big of a deal it is that she’s sitting in this window reading a big chapter book...that she’s here with us ...and that she’s reading.

The world might not think that’s very big. And sometimes, if we lift our eyes to look at someone else’s mountain, we can think that we are failing, that we aren’t strong enough, and that we’ll never catch up. We can think our climb is too small and our mountain is going no where. But that is a skewed perspective.

Halfway up the mountain, for this girl, is miles beyond where I’ve ever had to climb. And I’m so very proud of her. She has fought every step of the way to be where she is. She knows what hard is. And she knows what it means to feel small and afraid.

Don’t look left and right, my love, at other people’s climbs and other people’s mountains. And don’t look toward the top and lament how far away it might seem. Look down and see how far you have already come - on YOUR mountain - and then look beside you. I will always be there to catch you should your footing slip.