Grateful Living: Left It On the Mountaintop!

I am so sorry it's been awhile since I've written last. I have been traveling and had written a couple of entries on a notepad that I now can't seem to find. I have been upset about it because I had written a couple of really good entries. I still haven't found them but I will do my best to recreate them over the next few weeks when I find the inspiration again.

For now I want to write about my mountaintop experience! This past weekend I took a trip to the desert for a personal retreat. I have a friend/colleague who lives in PA but has a home in Palm Springs. He is always inviting me to stay at his place when I wanted to get away so this past weekend I took him up on the offer.

Bottom of mountains with South Carl Lykken Hiking Trail

I had been feeling pretty weighty (emotionally and mentally) so I was feeling like I needed to get away to some place where I didn't know anyone, didn't have to work, didn't have to talk to anyone (unless I wanted to), and didn't have to be anywhere. I needed to clear my mind and spend some time getting re-centered. So off I went to Palm Springs.

Friday night I went downtown and walked around. During appetizers, I met a couple from Kansas who told me about all of the great hiking trails in Palm Springs. The next morning I decided to get up and try one of them. I had never hiked in Palm Springs before so I was a little nervous about doing it alone but the pull to make it up the mountain was much stronger than my fear.

The first mountain was grueling as the trail was a steep incline (see picture above) for just over a mile. I stopped a couple of times along to the way to take a break and take pictures of the breathtaking views.

Fellow hikers taking in the scenery on one of the many rock cliffs.

The sky was pretty clear and the temperature was about 70 degrees when I started up the mountain around 10:30. It would eventually warm up to about 85 degrees by the time I made it down the mountain.

I stopped and talked to a few fellow hikers on the way up. Two guys were standing on a rock cliff that looked as if it was suspended in mid air. You can't tell how high up we were in this picture but the ground is NOT as close as it appears.

As I made my way up the mountain, I was overcome with a sense of gratefulness and reverence for God's creations. At one point I decided that I would, for the rest of the way up the mountain, focus on all of the things I'm grateful for: the sky, the views, the rocks, the birds, the cactus, my fellow hikers, my friend for allowing me to stay at his place, the couple from Kansas who told me about this trail, the flowers, the butterflies and on and on and on. Eventually I shifted my thinking away from the heavy thoughts that had been weighing me down and decided to live in the present moment without any regard for yesterday or worry about tomorrow. The foot traffic was light that day so I had a lot of freedom to sing out loud and talk to myself without people thinking I was crazy. :-)

When I made it to the top of the mountain there was no one else there. There are two picnic tables on top of the mountain so I sat down on one of them and began to pray. I prayed for what seemed like 5 minutes but when I finished and looked at the time, I had been praying for more than 15 minutes. I was sobbing and when I looked up, an older couple was making their way to the top of the mountain. The guy asked me if I was doing yoga. I said "No, just spending some time talking to God." He said, "well there's no better place to do than up here."

He was right! The clouds were being held at bay so the sky just above the mountain was a pretty light blue and it was as if someone had turned down the volume on everything in the city except the birds, the wind and the occasional rustle of trees and bushes. It was a pretty windy day so there was a lot of rustling.

On top of the mountain!

I know you can talk to God anywhere. I know I did not need to climb a mountain in Palm Springs to get close to God, but this was an important experience for me. When I was praying, one by one I named each of my cares and worries and one by one I released them. Visually I saw myself putting each of them down on the picnic table right next to my backpack, camera, cell phone and bottled water. When I got up to leave, I tucked my cell phone and camera into my backpack, grabbed my water, and left my troubles and worries sitting on the picnic table.

I didn't look back because I knew the wind would come and blow them away, into the hands of God who would know exactly what to do with them. I decided to walk down the other side of the mountain which added about 2 miles onto my journey. I didn't mind though because suddenly I felt energized and lighter than I did when I started the journey up the mountain.