Good day to you all. If you are new here, thanks to Nick Hornby’s recommendation or through any other route, welcome. I’m grateful you are here.
I normally do a list on Sundays, but I traveled all day yesterday and am taking a short respite this coming week. I’m on vacation with my family in a gorgeous mountain town — this is our third time to the Roaring Fork Valley. My son, John Henry, attends a camp here through an incredible organization called Ascendigo. We love being part of their family.
Having said that, I’m hard at work. Not at my position at the museum, but at learning about myself and the ways in which I need to grow and evolve in order to take better care of myself and in turn, others. One of those ways is finding compassion and patience for the processes of life and our limitations and imperfections when it comes to dealing with them. I began a new David Brooks book yesterday. If you’ve been here a while, you know I don’t really believe in accidents, so I’m certain this book has come at the exact right time. Y’all might remember I spent a good long while with Brooks’s How To Know A Person — and this one, The Second Mountain, feels like the next right step for me. I’m in what he calls the valley between the first mountain and the second — the place where I’m letting so many of my preconceived notions go — those about myself and who I was meant to be, about others, and about the world, the place where I’m finding much needed humility (I can’t actually do it all and I am not as tough as I’ve forced myself to have to be — I actually don’t have to endure everything), facing fears and testing my courage, being really honest with myself about where I’ve been and who I am and where I want to go, finding clarity about my relationships, and redefining my purpose as I exit an intense period of deep loneliness, longing, confusion, uncertainty, and despair. I’m not climbing the second mountain, but I’m facing it and getting ready to begin. The light that comes from my heart, especially its broken places, will lead my hands and feet to the proper points, one at a time. There’s no other way to scale it.
I’m planning on sitting still and looking at this mountain or others like it while John Henry is at camp during the day this week. I’m sure I’ll pop in to say hi and share anything interesting I come across.
Peace. Love.
Allison
I read SECOND STORY MOUNTAIN when it came out. Grabbed GETTING TO KNOW SOMEONE after you wrote about it. Brooks is a great communicator, and like you, he has done a lot of internal digging.
Appreciate your writings and courageous sharing. Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
Just as life isn’t linear, the valleys may be more meaningful than the peaks. We might not reach the second mountain but the work is the essence.