Life is hiking a trail along the ridge of an uncharted chain of mountains in the dark. You blindly follow a path, your vision limited to that immediately in front of you. You feel the strain of climbing its peaks and breathe in the reward of flat ground, only to lose your footing as you tumble over an edge into the deepest of valleys, left blindly swimming in a lake searching for the shore.

While it may take time, you will find yourself once again enduring the pain of climbing higher up the mountains, the end of that path lost somewhere ahead of you in the night. You climb and fall and climb and fall until the sun begins to rise, and when that light shines you are able to turn around and lay your eyes upon the path you’ve taken below you.

It is in that moment you see that there are no peaks without valleys, there are no highs without lows. Every step you have taken, every mountain you have climbed and cliff fallen over has brought you to the place you are standing. You are able to enjoy your past as a sunlit landscape in front of you.

You turn around and keep climbing, knowing the greatest reward for venturing into the unknown is glancing over your shoulder to appreciate the trail you blazed to get there.