Peaks and Valleys

Sometimes keeping a positive outlook on a difficult situation seems difficult. Especially when a negative feeling creeps in and leaves you feeling like you've failed at keeping a positive outlook. Even when that negative feeling is overcome, and you're riding the next high, the high is another peak which eventually leads to another valley.

I had a thought the other day, that paints the posative/negative roller coaster with a mountian metaphor. When you're at the peak of a mountain, there is no where to go but down. When you're sitting in a valley, you can go up, or you can travel along the valley and never really get any higher. In fact, no one lives at the peak of a mountain. People live in the valleys and look up at the peaks. The peaks are there to climb, but you always end up going down again.

I think this sort of speaks to highs and lows emotionally. At least with my experience. I guess I don't feel that I live at a peak. I certainly visit those peaks. Sometimes the visits are more frequent than other times, but life seems to be lived in the valley.

I've read a lot books which talk about abundance of whatever you like, including wealth, happiness, spirituality and the like. I wonder if anyone ever attains life at the peak of a mountain? Is it something that's possible? It seems that the people presenting the information have attained this, but I wonder?

I guess, and this has just occured to me, that when you are at the peak of a mountain, there is NO WHERE to go but down. This means that UP isn't an option either.

For me, challenge is crutial in life. I'm not sure I know how to get by without some sort of challenge ahead of me. I guess, living life at the top of that metaphorical mountain doesn't provide the opportunity for more challenge. There is no more up.

I guess that means that living in the valley leaves you surrounded with challenges. The opportunity is there to pick the one you want, take it on, and then return to the valley to rest for the next challenge.

Maybe the trick is the frequency at which you take on the peaks. I don't think you even have to get to the peak every time for the benifit. Just wandering up from the valley to get a little higher, to have a little better view, enriches life. So maybe those who seem to live their life at the peak just get out of the valley more often.

I've also had the thought that although getting out of the valley is great, you can't really see the breadth of peaks beyond what you see from the valley floor without being on top of another peak. Of course the higher the peak, the more you see. So, the bigger the challenge you succeed with, the more opportunity you are able to see.

Although I had the initial thought earlier, the one about 'no where to go from a peak but down', the rest didn't come until now. Funny, that at the time, the thought I had concluded that the valley was a depressing place to be, but I see now that it's not. The roller coaster life takes you on is vitally important. If you were at the top all the time, that would become common place. There would be no reward in continually being there.

I think that leads me to believe that living at the top would get kind of boring.

What is the Challenge?

I don't want to say it's a problem, cause I've been watching this show with my wife regarding getting rid of excuses from one's life. So let's say that one of the challenges of being unemployed is being able to stay posative all the time. I do believe that mood, feelings and thoughts can guide what happens to a person from what's seen as outside influences. So, with that belief the trick is to be and feel posative about what I want out of the next 6 months.

I guess the challenge here is that I'm not sure what I want out of the next 6 months, especially when I realize that it may affect what I do with my next 15 years career wise. A lot of ideas have been racing around between the old ears. When the ideas pop up, it's really a great spot to be in. Creative energy is flowing, which leads to new, bigger ideas and the whole thing has sort of a postive snowball effect that leaves me feeling on top of the world. Eventually though, the creation of these ideas slows down and stops.

Trying to pick up on the same ideas later just doesn't seem to bring the same fire, as the initial thoughts brought.

I guess that's not entirely true. I do get excited about some thoughts continuously. Maybe these are the ones that need pursuing? Well, they are probably most definately the ones that need pursuing. I guess maybe this is where the challenge comes in. The thoughts that produce continued excitement are not the ones that lead in the same path as the one I know.

That's kind of scarry for just that reason. It's the unknown. And I'm not certain how to bring the unkown into reality.

There is the quote by Martin Luther King Jr. that says, "Take the first step in faith . . . you don't have to see the whole stair case, just take the first step." It's a great quote and speaks volumes, especially with the problem of bringing the unknown into reality, but I'm not sure I'm there yet. That's sad, because it's only fear that holds a person back.

Maybe the first step in that faith for the moment is to continue to let the ideas flow. That's brought about answers in the past for our family, and it can certainly happen again. Is that the challenge then for now?