MOUNTAIN THOUGHTS

My road stretches before me

Always rising: a mountain trail

With no end of switchbacks,

And like in the mountains,

I can only see the next step

And never the destination.

Then I come to treeline..

I can look ahead, see my destination.

I watch the other hikers

Struggle along the same path.

Same, but somehow different.

Though it appears to be as one.,

Your path and mine

Might be identical and yet

How we travel those same miles

Makes my journey seem other,

Totally unlike yours,

As if we were a world away..

The difference, I think

Comes in what we see on the trip:

Whether forest beauty or wasteland,

High summit or mud and rocks.

The same things seen differently

Say a lot. Do we see the hike

As opportunity or burden?

-April 7, 2010

Chip Bergeron