zenmember
Posts: 381
Joined: 2/26/2007
From: Sarnia, Ontario, Canada
Status: offline
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Today I am Grateful for the mountains.
Talk about faith, although I can't see them today, I can envision them with Juliana's fierce blue sky as their backdrop; and know there is hope and, all is well.
I grew up in a place where from my bedroom window, I could see seven stately mountains. Looking south from Montreal provides a view of what are referred to as "the seven sisters"; leftover islands from the ice age. Travel north of there for a short distance and you enter the Laurentians, old eroded hills which provide a haven for skiers. My mother's hometown nestled against the foothills of the Gatineaus and My Aunt and Uncle lived at the foot of the Yamaska. As a child I thought everyone had a mountain in their backyard. I flew over the French/ Italian Alps a number of times on my way to the Arabian desert. I lived long enough in the Arabian penisula to see red sands turn a three hundred foot rock escarpment into a gentle sloping dune along the Mecca Road west of Riyahd. I've driven the treacherous roads ascending the mountain wall of the red sea coastal plain extending from Jeddah to Jizan and north to Tebuk; the areas of this planet eulogized by T.s. Lawrence. I've visited Greece and Japan, countries that are 80% mountainous. Traveling from Athens to Delphi you'd swear the world was vertical. It is a joy to watch people tending their mountainside gardens on paths that only donkeys can navigate. When we lived in Tokyo; once in a while, when conditions were right, we were treated to majestic views of Mount Fuji-san; the most perfectly formed volcanic cone known to humans. Living in Hiroshima on the delta of the mighty Ota River, one is ringed by magnificent specimens of craggy mountains. A ten minute ride from our apartment on a motor scooter took us to the top of a ridge that provided an awesome view of the city and Hiroshima Bay; turn around and you were looking in-land at a lushly vegetated valley stretching north for rice paddy after rice paddy. In Aukland, New Zealand, there is a blown out volcano crater right in the center of the city that provides a 360 degree panoramic view from it's rim that would catch the breath of any hard core cynic. Later, in British Columbia at the north end of the Okanagan Valley high above the shores of the Shuswap, living in the shadow of Mount Ida where I was fortunate enough to see a triple rainbow, once again my childhood understanding came to rest.
Now, I live in Sarnia at the south end of Lake Huron. I can't imagine the existance of flatter terrain (well, maybe east of Windsor). Saskatchewan even has trouble equaling our flatness. I once asked a local farmer just outside of Regina, what lights were showing on the horizon. He replied; "Well, if you're looking east it could be Winnepeg or, west, it could be Calgary." Yes, it's that flat around Sarnia. Yet, I know those other mountains exist and anytime I miss them, I close my eyes and they comfort me in their silence and mystical majesty.
< Message edited by Imenuff -- 9/11/2007 2:29:57 PM >
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Mountain Peak Experiences I am Grateful for... - 
it was a restless plight so now I do the meditation tapes which calm the inner beast.I listen to pandora's music as I can choose what ever I want to hear and it's free,no ads;nothing. 
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