I wrote this metaphor after the best date of my life where we spent ALL day hiking up Timp, shorty after my jaw surgery. Toughest hike of my life, best date ever.
My life is a hike. Not just any hike, but the hike to the summit of Mt. Timpanogos in the middle of summer. Carrying a backpack filled with the essentials: food, a first aid kit just in case, and lots of water. 7.5 miles one way, this hike takes all day; up a narrow trail that twists, turns, and is steep in many places. The trail and scenery dramatically changes as I go. I am told to stay on the trail but in some places people have forged shortcuts, which are shorter but usually steeper, rockier, more strenuous than the original trail it’s self, and I have to decide which way to go.
It is difficult to keep my feet moving, while every muscle is telling me to stop, and that I can’t keep going. Most thankfully, I am not alone in this endeavor. I have friends to encourage me and one particular member of the group who is wherever I need him the whole way. Lifting what I can’t, sharing his water, pulling me along, or staying behind with me so I’m not alone. He is the reason I don’t turn around, the reason I make it to the lake before the summit.
There are waterfalls to refresh at along the way, but they are down lower; more at the start of the trail. For a long stretch, there is nothing but what you already have, until you reach the lake. Oh glorious lake! Cold, quite, everyone rests here; to eat, refill their water, take off their shoes and even nap. I want to just stay there forever, but I have to tie my laces again and continue up to the destination I started the hike to reach. Everyone says it is worth it. I can’t wait to get there and experience it for myself.
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