For me lately, the "juice" has been climbing. In gyms, outdoors.....whatever. I just want to feel my fingers grip into something more steady than just me.
Maybe that's the metaphor that subconsciously jumps me about climbing. God....the rock.
So picture it for yourself.....the image above might help....
...you've tied in to the rope and you have a good trusting relationship with your belayer.....there's a metaphor in itself, but I'll restrain myself from digressing...
...you ease yourself onto the rock face and begin ticking away at hand holds and footholds...one after the other in smooth sequential climbing fashion. As you get about 50 feet above the ground and feel the wind rushing by and that light sensation in your stomach that makes your right knee shake at the possibility of falling, you just grip down harder.....maybe adjust your left handhold a bit so you can rechalk your right hand and prepare to keep pushing....it's then that it hits you.
The only possibility for failure in this situation is me. The rock's not going anywhere and this equipment that I've spent so much money on is very unlikely to fail.....but my grip is what's shaky...and my stamina is what's limited. Isn't that why I come out here every weekend, in the first place, and tie in so that I can test myself against this solid rock? So that I can draw near to something so permanently fixed that's been around, for all intents and purposes, since the beginning of time itself?
And so as I test myself against the rock, gaining my steadfastness from its permanence.....hardening my grip to more closely resemble its fixed nature...I improve at my craft.....slowly....surely....humbly.....with no hurry to be "the best" or to break records.....but simply to undersand and know....therefore becoming a part of the very thing that allows me to elevate myself to a place of clearer perspective.
rock on.
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