They say with age comes wisdom and as I look back down my life’s path, I can see how it has prepared for where I am today. As a young man, I wasn’t well equipped handle life’s challenges, I was real quick to for find the negative not the positive. I immediately saw the issue as a huge mountain and there was no way that I could climb. Honestly, when I stood at the base of some of my mountains, there was no path, just a huge insurmountable mass of darkness I had no hope of overcoming. Luckily for me, I was blessed with an amazing wife who knew when it was time and she became my Sherpa, she would work through the issue, and in time life was back to “our” normal and pretty quick, I was skipping down life’s path once again.
The cool things about a mountain is the view from the top, you can see for miles and get an amazing, 360 degree of the world around you. Thankfully for me, as time moved on I would look back at my mountain trying to remember how hard each was to climb and that amazing view and it was never there. I finally started to see or understand that my perceived mountain was just a hill and not a very big one at that. I am not sure if I lacked the maturity or life experience to process the reality of the situation or possibly, that is just how I was wired.
Our world is full of people who are standing at the bottom of the mountain feeling lost, have no hope and no one they feel they can turn to. There are a lot of this we can do to make the mountain seem smaller, or to help someone climb their own mountain. Here are a few ideas.
- Start a conversation with someone you don’t know, especially if it seems like they could use a friend.
- Try something new – start a project you’ve been putting off, join an organization that interests you, and visit a destination you’ve always wondered about, check out a new restaurant.
- Volunteer – you’ll be amazed at how much helping others helps yourself.
- Talk to friends and family when something’s bothering you – they’ll be flattered you sought them out. Return the favor when they need it.
- Be curious – find out something new about your children, your spouse, your best friend at work. Watch a new TV show. Start a new podcast or book.
By John Paschall, Carson’s Village Board Member (and a member of April and Jason’s village)