By Justin Cude
[bctt tweet=”Behind mountains are more mountains.” username=”cityreadsnyc”]
In the presence of mountains, simply observe. Do they stand alone, isolated and surrounded by terrain of less impressive and of less daunting physique? No. They instead are surrounded by more mountains, though different in stature and in design, mountains still; every peak, valley, and edge providing their own set of challenges in quest towards their overcoming. Further, upon reach of ones summit, what is awaiting our array? More mountains to climb. Rest for now, enjoy this moment.
This thing standing in your way, the one you have been chiseling away at for an enduring duration of both time and of being; finished. Time to enjoy the fulfillment of conquering that which has, at moments, made you doubt your own ability, your own will, your own worth. No more. It is done; for now but not for long.
Take time to reflect the moments of past and to survey the best you can the moments of ahead. Then prepare for the work, for that is the only truth which we know the next mountain to contain; the work demanded for the overcoming of its presented challenge.
Whether of the mind, or of the laws which dictate nature, we know the road ahead will not remain as tranquil as the moment of now. We aren’t done; we never were. Only the relaxation of our dynamic experience was upon us; the state which lies between the highs and the lows of our worlds natural tendencies, a moments stagnancy pro tem between the opposite ends of the same spectrum. We are only momentarily experiencing the serenity before the collapse of a pillar or before the proliferation of yet another blockade; both obstacles in their own respects, both challenges to overcome. Don’t be scared, for this is only again the beginning. You’ve been here before, and you will be here again.
“Live on in your blessings, your destiny’s been won. But ours calls us on from one ordeal to the next.” – Virgil
Do not fear this. What more is life than in the overcoming of whatever lie ahead, whether of the physical or of the psychological world. Take for instance, the story of Sisyphus, a prince punished by Zeus to an eternal battle of will, perseverance and physical sustain, doomed to the task of pushing a boulder up a hill, only for that boulder to once again roll down. Our lives are no different. Whereas Sisyphus’ moments of tranquility came in form of reaching the top of the hill, and in the calm before the realization of the boulders decent to the re-positioning of yet another beginning, our lives compare in both method and madness. We will reach peaks of our choosing and of our fate, we will have moments of reward and of serenity because of this, and we will fall back down to yet again another beginning; again, and again, and again. So the question is, if this is the fate with which we are presented and with which we are left to face, what do we do? [bctt tweet=”We begin again.” username=”cityreadsnyc”]
Whatever the mask the new obstacle in front of us chooses to wear, remember it is only that; a mask, one we do not have to view in its chosen presentation. Rather, through the power of perception, we can reveal its true being and manipulate its power over us accordingly. It doesn’t have to be a monster, which is largely a determination of the subconscious mind. It can simply be an impediment of nature, wearing a mask depicting our fear, a mask we can chose to remove with the power of our conscious being. We may not have decisive power over its presence, but we do have that power over its meaning and over its control of us. However, perception, like any other quality of the mind we possess, must be understood, practiced, and applied, for other wise it will remain nothing more than a mystery of our untapped and undeveloped conscience. We have choice over meaning, and in this, limitless control of our perception. Circumstances, though good at establishing environment, do not provide context; only we can do that.
“You don’t have to turn this into something. It doesn’t have to upset you. Things can’t shape our decisions by themselves.”
— Marcus Aurelius
Remember, “Behind mountains, are more mountains”, but also,[bctt tweet=”Behind our overcoming, is our earned ability to overcome again.” username=”cityreadsnyc”]
This piece was inspired by the reading of Ryan Holiday’s, ‘The Obstacle Is The Way’. A great read!
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