By Darrel Hammon
Mountains in our lives seem to engulf us,
cause us to shrink from even starting,
lulling us into self-pity and wallowing in our woes
to the point of spiraling and stumbling.
Surely, we must realize:
All that does not become us.
That is not who we really are.
Yet, once we rise up,
eyes focused on the way,
we will know what we need to do.
Once we choose to face that challenge,
our own personal mountain,
with faith, not fear,
we begin the steady, arduous ascent,
step by step, scrambling up and over
boulders and even small rocks,
the minutia of our everyday lives,
that hide the view from us
because we place them
so close in our line of vision
as to obstruct the big picture,
even the view of it all.
At each corner of our journey,
if we look carefully and sometimes quickly,
we catch just a fleeting glimpse
of the mountain top,
our ultimate goal.
But now we know
what the summit looks like,
that vision filling our minds
of what’s to come.
As we continue forward,
steadfast, diligent, persistent,
waiting in hope and striving to endure,
we ultimately hear those penetrating whispers
and songs of exclamation and praise
from Him whose love we seek.
Then, our hearts and minds overflow
with gratitude for this more excellent way.
What propels us now is hearing
and feeling and knowing
that yes, we are enough
and that we can move mountains!
Darrel L. Hammon has been dabbling in writing in a variety of genres since his college days, having published poetry, academic and personal articles/essays, a book titled Completing Graduate School Long Distance (Sage Publications), and a picture book, The Adventures of Bob the Bullfrog: Christmas Beneath a Frozen Lake (Outskirts Press). He also was the editor of the Journal of Adult Education (Mountain Plains Adult Education Association). Most of his essay/article writing has focused on topics about growing up, leadership, self-awareness, motivation, marriage/dating, and educational topics. Some of these articles/essays are in Spanish because Darrel is bilingual in Spanish/English, having lived in Chile, Dominican Republic, and southern California, and having worked with Latino youth and families all of his professional life in higher education. He has two blogs, one for personal writing at http://www.darrelhammon.blogspot.com/ and one for his consulting/life coaching business (http://www.hammonconsults.blogspot.com/). You can listen to a poem titled “Sprucing Up” here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihTmuOUIAEI.