Nestled in the middle of the high reaching mountains of the Sierra Nevadas is the Yosemite Valley. Of course the drive there is spectacular, but I’ll have to say that the true reward is from the valley itself. It really puts something so significant in perspective…us. These walls are high and massive…we are not (physically at least). They can almost feel overwhelming to be around! Ah, what a big world we live in!
But is it really? No, not compared to the solar system. That’s big right? Nope, not compared to the Milky Way Galaxy. I think you see where this is going. It’s a matter of perspective based on relationships. From one perspective, these walls are in the way. We can’t see whats on the other side of them. From another perspective, higher up, we can see it all. We see the bigger picture. We see what’s on the other side of those walls. What’s changed? Not the mountains, but our relationship to them…our perspective.
I had a lot of time to this about this as I decided I was going to climb Half Dome by myself. I knew a bit about this hike…but not enough. And honestly, the not knowing probably helped me push myself to do it. It took me 9 hours round trip. That means about 4 1/2 hours were uphill. It was grueling to say the least. But with every step, came a new - higher - perspective.
This was an amazing time to soak in the surroundings of trees, wildlife and waterfalls as I climbed thousands of feet…one step at a time. Each section seemed to have it’s own distinct landscape that reminded me of Buddy the Elf leaving the North Pole. This was seemingly less fun in some ways, but majestic in others. Near the top…at the sub dome was the final push before the final push. It was a pretty vertical climb of makeshift rock stairs made out of rocks where quitting entered my brain and wouldn’t let go. But I didn’t come this far to not finish.
The peak was finally in sight! And rising above the tree line created a panoramic that words can truly do no justice. I’ll leave it at that. The final leg of this hike is even more vertical than the makeshift stairs. SO vertical that there are two rows of cables bolted into the rock of the dome and two by fours every ten feet so people can hoist their way up….yes, THAT vertical. Just as my legs were about to fail on me from the 4 hour climb up, I was now being asked to use my upper body to finish the last 30 minutes. One of the few things I did hear about this hike was to bring gloves for the cables. Thank God I did because at this point in my fatigue, they were a HUGE help. I began the slow process of climbing the final leg, passing people as they came down. Spoiler Alert, I made it and lived to tell the tale.
Wow, the view, again, was beyond words. My pictures don’t really do it much justice either, but must be shared nonetheless. With the threat of rain in the distance, I only spent about half an hour up there to drink in the surroundings best I could. From the top, it was only my eyes and the curvature of the earth that limited my perspective. Of course higher up would remedy that! But this was the top of the earth in this area. I felt bigger here. Was I? Nope…Just a perspective change.
As our awareness grows, we have the ability to increase our view from the “top.” We can tap in to the bigger picture of our lives just by adjusting our perspective. What if that thing that happened to you today made you feel bad. Is there an opportunity to reframe it and see it as something good? Or to grow from at least? If we can come from a place of growth, or see the potential good, it puts us in a vibration to have THAT reflected back in our reality. Law of Attraction.
You see, we tend to operate from a limited view of things…at the bottom of the valley. Most of us, if not all, have been in a place where we judged an event one way - only to see it another way as time went by. What changed? Not the event. It was the perspective. Time had passed…awareness grew…new information was discovered…whatever the case was, the event remained, but we were able to reframe it. Knowing this can give us a leg up the next time something “bad” happens. The idea here is to not judge it too quickly, or even at all. From another perspective, a higher one, the event can look totally different.
The benefit to this is that it works with the daily energy that we wear. If we’re walking around feeling like something “bad” happened, it gives us a very different experience than the feeling of something neutral or even “good” happening. And THAT’S what the Law of Attraction is responding too…how we’re feeling. Whether or not the Law of Attraction is responding to our energy can even be taken out of the equation to just be left with the idea that it just feels better to feel good instead of bad.
We don’t really need a reason to feel good…we feel good because we WANT to feel good. But just our luck, the Universe will reflect back how we’re feeling! Win-Win! From the valleys of our lives, we can be blocked by walls in every direction. But if we go high enough, nothing is in our way.