๐ต a new idea ๐ฑ
Posted: Tue, Aug 4, 2026 04:00:09 PM
cannot be grafted onto a closed mind. it has been one of those days that i did something early and did not have the time to write this before what i heard went by the wayside. today i summited my twentieth fourteener. i have to say that i am glad i did, although my body may choose to disagree tomorrow. 14,268 feet above sea level was my goal today and Mount Blue Sky allowed to fulfill that goal. everything i thought about spirituality, religion and open-mindedness, flew out of my mind as i climbed to the top of the Front Range of Colorado. i think i will pause for a second and see where i may be right now, now that i am at home in front of my computer.
as i consider how i came into recovery and how certain i was when i entered the rooms about God, religion and what i thought a “spiritual path” was, it is amazing that i am still here! i have been around long enough to see more than a few of my peers float pout of the rooms on a cloud of religious zeal or because the whole “GOD” thing was too much for them to swallow. in fact, i could have been one of the latter as it took a decade and a half before i uncovered my spiritual path. all of that time, trying to make a HIGHER POWER that looked like that of my peers, was certainly not wasted. it did, however, take incredible stamina to persist until something clicked. no matter how often i was told that i could have any HIGHER POWER that “fit” me, i was hung up on the human attributes of loving and caring, that my peers suggested my HIGHER POWER should possess. when i finally came to my path, i found the ways and means to share something with my peers, that looked nothing like anything i had ever heard. the POWER that fuels my recovery, provides me the opportunities, each day, to get what i need. the only catch? i have to be awake and present in the here and now to recognize and exercise them. it is a partnership. plain and simple.
today the opportunity i got, was to climb a mountain that i have been wanting to take off my list of yet to climbs.” i was stronger than i have ever been in endurance but the result of over-training made my knees less than capable than they have been. nevertheless, i made it to the summit and i feel the accomplishment of doing just that. it is quite true, that most of the folks on the summit drove to within less than a mile and “hiked” the last 100 or so feet of vertical elevation. good for them! i am open-minded enough today to allow them the joy i feel when i climb to the summit, without disparaging their effort. today, the smoke from fires was oppressive and that may also be a price i pay over the next few days. what i know today is that i walked from Summit Lake to the top and made some allowances for the way back down. i will not beat myself up for listening to my body rather than bulling my way through the twinges of pain i felt. i am better than that today, just for today.
as i consider how i came into recovery and how certain i was when i entered the rooms about God, religion and what i thought a “spiritual path” was, it is amazing that i am still here! i have been around long enough to see more than a few of my peers float pout of the rooms on a cloud of religious zeal or because the whole “GOD” thing was too much for them to swallow. in fact, i could have been one of the latter as it took a decade and a half before i uncovered my spiritual path. all of that time, trying to make a HIGHER POWER that looked like that of my peers, was certainly not wasted. it did, however, take incredible stamina to persist until something clicked. no matter how often i was told that i could have any HIGHER POWER that “fit” me, i was hung up on the human attributes of loving and caring, that my peers suggested my HIGHER POWER should possess. when i finally came to my path, i found the ways and means to share something with my peers, that looked nothing like anything i had ever heard. the POWER that fuels my recovery, provides me the opportunities, each day, to get what i need. the only catch? i have to be awake and present in the here and now to recognize and exercise them. it is a partnership. plain and simple.
today the opportunity i got, was to climb a mountain that i have been wanting to take off my list of yet to climbs.” i was stronger than i have ever been in endurance but the result of over-training made my knees less than capable than they have been. nevertheless, i made it to the summit and i feel the accomplishment of doing just that. it is quite true, that most of the folks on the summit drove to within less than a mile and “hiked” the last 100 or so feet of vertical elevation. good for them! i am open-minded enough today to allow them the joy i feel when i climb to the summit, without disparaging their effort. today, the smoke from fires was oppressive and that may also be a price i pay over the next few days. what i know today is that i walked from Summit Lake to the top and made some allowances for the way back down. i will not beat myself up for listening to my body rather than bulling my way through the twinges of pain i felt. i am better than that today, just for today.
∞ DT ∞