Mountains to Climb

I climbed a mountain peak. Buffalo Peak. It was hard and it hurt, but the feeling of accomplishment was fantastic and the coming down was great.
Oliver not only took it easy on me-a 2 mile(ish) hike to the top with not a lot of altitude gain and allowing us to go at my pace and taking breaks when I needed it, but he made it worth the struggle. I think without him I might have not continued at some points. I realized that with Oliver, I really can do a lot of things.
The hike gave us time to think and meditate and be just with each other. Once we'd gone so far, we either had to keep going or turn around, but no matter what we had to keep walking because there was no other way to get off the mountain.
After the hike, we continued having a great weekend. Had a great lunch and played a card game with my sister who'd watched the boys for us that morning. Then spent the evening with Oliver's mother and sister playing games, watching a movie or two and letting the boys play. That night we looked at the "super moon" through Oliver's new scope...it was very blinding.
Then we had another good Sunday as well. It was a great weekend.
On Sunday morning I was looking on lds.org for some morning enlightenment and listened to President Eyring's talk from April's General Conference called Mountains to Climb. He quotes President Spencer W. Kimball at the beginning who said: "There are great challenges ahead of us, giant opportunities to be met. I welcome that exciting prospect and feel to say to the Lord, humbly, ‘Give me this mountain,’ give me these challenges."
I feel like several of the last few months have been my personal mountains to climb. Evan's health, trying to raise these two boys, work, finding balance, etc. Yet I climbed a mountain just the other day. And it was hard. And I did it. And I've been doing it. Oliver has been. Our family of four has been climbing mountains for a while and we'll keep on going. While I was listening to this talk from President Eyring, I know there were moments where I was thinking, "I can't imagine asking for mountains to climb." I like having little hills to overcome, small challenges that are easy to get over. Although, I suppose, not many people count how many hills they've conquered. In fact, most hills aren't labeled and no one feels extremely accomplished after getting to the top. But a mountain, those things have names. There are groups of people who make it a point to climb to all of the highest peaks in each county or state or country, etc. Mountains make you feel like you've accomplished something. And some days you are proud of yourself for climbing what others consider a hill. But it doesn't matter. You are the one who gets to name your own mountains and knows how hard the struggle is. You are the one who gets to be victorious for making it to the top to see the beauty. In that respect, I think I have to cheer for each mountain we have to climb. And cheer on everyone else for conquering their mountains also.