Wednesday, July 1, 2009
A couple of days ago, I had the privilege of accomplishing one of my first summer goals... climbing to the very top of the mountain that I have looked at every morning out my office window since September when I moved here. I am sure that on the grand scale it would be considered a small mountain; however after hibernating all winter behind a nice warm keyboard, it was a monumental task to say the least. My husband and I set out on our trek early on the bright sunny Sunday morning. Fashionably dressed in tank top, shorts and hiking boots, I was grateful to head out of site and into the woods. Even though the day prior I had hiked ¼ the way up the same mountain, with a couple of my children, I was determined to see where the rest of the trail would lead us. Since that part of our journey was 95% straight uphill… we decided it would be best to leave the children home. As Brad and I made it to the point where I had ended the day before, I could not help but feel my body disagree with my current decision to go further. My back started to hurt and my feet felt every degree of incline in our progress up the path to the top of the timbers. Even with spotting a couple of locations where Bears no longer lingered, we kept going…until, my husband said, “Stop.” In fear I ran closer to him wondering if he might have to use the can of bear spray on his hip, all the while thinking about the jokes of how its true purpose was to ‘pepper the meat’ before the bears had their dinner and that bear bells were really just ‘dinner bells.’ My husband very carefully leaned over and moved some ferns from their resting place onside of the mountain. As I was about to ask him what the heck he was looking at, he said, “I don’t believe it!” I was expecting the worst when he pointed to… a frog! A frog ½ way up the side of the mountain with no visible water around. Once my head slowed back to pre-bear-attack thinking, I was able to be shocked as well. Beyond all reason, there should be no water needing creatures in sight let alone a Frog!
Since my mind works in symbols and analogies, I could not help but compare my mountain climbing adventure to that of the adventure of creating Stock Harmony. The mountain that we are on… is the world markets, current business ethics & practices. Every piece of deadfall and root blocking the trail…are the obstacles that we have had to overcome to get to this point in our climb to launch Stock Harmony. The beautiful flowers and foliage along the way… are our friends who are offering kind advice and encouragement. The massive fallen trees that were now visibly becoming one with the earth… symbolized the corporations that once stood mighty and proud, only to be blown over by winds because their values (roots) were not strong enough to hold them in this economy. The bear droppings & stinging nettle… well, you guess that one… The 95% slope that we are climbing to get to the top is the hard work and dedication that it will take in order to achieve our intention. Two hours, two sunburns, sore knees, scraps, stings and uphill perseverance later, we were standing at the very top ridge of our mountain overlooking the entire valley and our house. Even though my body was not happy for the majority of our trip, I was extremely grateful that I did not give in…and I achieved what we set out to do.
Now I can look out my window every morning and think to myself, I did it, I made it to the very top! (of this peak)As I sat there in the moment, in wonder of our accomplishment, I took in the majesty around me and again reflected. …even though, we have climbed to the summit and pre-launched Stock Harmony, as I look around, there are even higher mountains to climb…but this trip has helped given me the prospective and strength that I will need, when I climb the other mountains that are waiting for us to get to the top of them as well.
The journey home helped me appreciate the other 5%..the 5% that had now become, my new uphill. Everything, which was previously uphill, had now become my downhill… and now my knees screamed at me every step of the way. Even though we saw that a bear had crossed our trail we thankfully never did cross his path! We made it home safely even after we misplaced the trail and got to climb over hectares of deadfall. (We even saw another frog!) This just helped reassure me that I was not in spry enough shape but it was also a good idea to withdraw my nomination to be on the television show ‘Man Tracker.’
As I gaze out my window this morning looking at the mountains before me, I am not only thankful for the obstacles in my life to that I have had climb up to this point…but for the ones that are yet to come… because I know that I CAN…and so can YOU!
Most Humbly,
Marcia
President, Stock Harmony
http://www.stockharmony.com/
Marcia@stockharmony.com
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