Where the Air is Thin

For years I’ve been intrigued with the summit expeditions to Mt. Everest. So intrigued that I skipped my last birthing class to hear Dave Bereshears talk about his IMAX Everest filming in 1996 when Aussie Rob Hall died along with 7 or so other people.

As I watch these Mt. Everest films I am amazed at the single-mindedness of the successful climbers, like Ed Vesters and Norgay. In the dead zone, each step is one of agony, each step, each breathe is literally killing them as they draw nearer to the summit. Some people survive the extreme high altitudes of Everest without bottled oxygen, their bodies becoming acclimatized to the dangerously low levels of oxygen.

Lately I’m finding my spiritual trail feels like I’m in the dead zone. Each step is a conscious choice. Nothing feels at all natural, easy or comfortable. Sometimes I want to put my head in the sand and hide, but instead I go to bed crazy early like 7:30p and get up to embrace another day. “I’m thankful for another day of life,” like my friend Kris still says after 9 years of fighting cancer. (She is a hero)

Maybe like the climbers, Ed Vesters and Norgay, I will become acclimatized to living my spiritual life where the oxygen is thin. Maybe I will begin to function at a different realm of dying to myself and all that it entails. Maybe I will come to recognize that my “crazy” days are simply the norm. Maybe Spirit’s presence will become more evident as the air thins, and as I die and live in a new higher dimension of life.

I don’t know.

As long as the trail draws me closer to God, I'm climbing.

FYI - Late April and May is when people climb Everest.