“One sees great things from the valley; only small things from the peak.”

– G.K. Chesterton

Oh, it’s delicious to reach a high point. Everybody loves a mountaintop experience. Up there full of satisfaction. Completing the climb, maybe the accomplishment feels like rising above it all. Above the banality and pettiness of the world, above everyday concerns. With a beautiful, broad view of things, overcoming limitations, doubts, and fears — it’s triumphant!

But G.K. Chesterton was right. From such a lofty vantage, the rest of the world can look very small. The ordinary world can start to seem insignificant, disappointing, measly.

Longing for the elevations, it’s easy to feel frustrated and dissatisfied. What’s wrong with the world when it doesn’t feel like a peak? Or is it, rather, something wrong with us?

Nah. Neither. The valleys are really where it’s at most of the time.

Life happens here. Most of our messy love happens in these fertile valleys. The valleys in which we dwell are rich places of adventure and experience, alive with animals and vegetation, squishy with moss and slippery stones and flowing rivers.

Someone shared this short Khalil Gibran piece on social media this week:

FEAR

It is said that before entering the sea
a river trembles with fear.

She looks back at the path she has traveled,
from the peaks of the mountains,
the long winding road crossing forests and villages.

And in front of her,
she sees an ocean so vast,
that to enter
there seems nothing more than to disappear forever.

But there is no other way.
The river can not go back.

Nobody can go back.
To go back is impossible in existence.
The river needs to take the risk
of entering the ocean
because only then will fear disappear,
because that’s where the river will know
it’s not about disappearing into the ocean
but of becoming the ocean.

I love a mountaintop experience as much as the next guy. But it’s no less a blessing when my path leads into a deep river valley. Though the trees and shadows, cascading over the rocks, to become the sea.

I can’t wait to be with you this Sunday, September 15, 10:00am at q-Staff Theater. With the divine Patty Stephens. XO, Drew

©2024 Drew Groves