In lieu of a photo of a daunting, steep hill is my view of said hill from its base. It was harder to draw this hill than climb it.
There’s a steep hill that I bike up every morning on my way to language school. As soon as I see the foot of said hill from several meters away, I have to physically and mentally prepare myself. I shift my gear down, take a deep breath, and start pedaling.
On bad days (i.e. moments after a challenging yoga class or the day after a long bike ride or hike) this hill is K2. My normal breathing turns into to heavy huffs, every muscle group in my body burns, and the entire ride up feels like forever. On good days though, it’s simply a gradual upward slope that kindles some heat under my clothes and forms beads of sweat on my skin. I’ve passed it several times on my runs and have tried taking a photo to show how steep it is, but every time the photo comes out, it doesn’t look like the mean, towering hill that it is. Which just goes to show that whether I’m having a good day or a bad day, that ascending stretch is the same hill—day in and day out. What changes is my attitude and the shape I’m in on that given day.
Moving from climbing that hill to living my life day by day, I’ve learned that when I’m running or practicing yoga or climbing—or simply going about any event on any given day, I have to take that particular activity for what it is at THAT VERY MOMENT. It doesn’t matter if I managed a forearm stand weeks before, or that I wobbled in my tree pose just a few moments ago, or if I managed a sub 1-hour 10K long before. We have to learn to let the past go and be thankful for it (or in the case of my wobbly tree pose, be glad that it’s over), and focus on the HERE and NOW.