Beyond the Hill

Hello, my people. Today I bring you another philosophical pondering which is both deep and dangerous. You’ve been warned.

See, in my aunt’s cow pasture, there’s this decently large hill that’s full of ticks and weeds and other such nastiness. When I was little, I would look up toward the top, and wonder what was beyond that hill. (I’m 95% sure I thought there was a castle or something.)

Being my typical self, it took me eight years to do it, but by golly, I was determined, and finally, I got around to climbing that hill. Not gonna lie, I was almost expecting to see Maria Von Trapp twirling out to meet me once I got to the top, accompanied by a burst of epic music (and maybe one or two castles). But do you know what I found?

A fence.

Beyond that?

Not a castle. Not a ditzy soprano and a herd of savage children. Not even a house.

Another hill.

So anticlimactic.

Now I go up there and stand at the fence, wondering what’s beyond that hill.

So often in life, we tend to look toward some monumental event in our future and expect all of our hopes and dreams to culminate there. If I can only get a car. Or a job. Or get my stupid book published. If I can just make it to this point, life will even out and I can be happy.

HA.

We’re not living in the movies. There’s no climax in real life, no resolution. No accompanying music to help us realize our success. Yeah, when we get to the top of the hill, there may be a castle waiting for us, but then what? Life goes on. You have to move all your stuff into the castle, and let me tell you, moving is NO. FUN. So inadvertently, you’ve got another hill.

If you could only get all this junk moved. THEN you could settle down and be happy.

The hills will never satisfy one, because the hills will never stop. Life is an unending series of them, and the moment you get to the top of one, another starts. Not to say looking forward to things or being excited about publishing a book is terrible (Hint: It’s not), but living in the future and staking one’s happiness on it ain’t such a great idea. If people could learn to live in the moment and appreciate the journey, instead of always pining for what’s to come, I believe they would be way happier.

So… Relax. You’ll get to the hills. They’ll be fun. More hills will come. They’ll be fun too. Enjoy the little things of life, and stake your destination on God, the only hill that has no beyond. That’s the only way to truly settle down and have peace.

So there’s my random sermon of the day. Excuse me while I go take my own advice.

~Sarah