| What's your favorite physical activity? | | | | to escape the reality that life includes some |
| I love riding my hand cycle. If you've never seen | | | | difficult seasons. Some are tougher, longer, and |
| one, a hand cycle is an arm-powered cycle that | | | | steeper than others. You get part of the way up |
| allows wheelchair users to participate in cycling. | | | | and you're certain you'll never make it. |
| Aside from the physical benefits, I enjoy cycling | | | | But as long as you keep going, you arrive at the |
| because in many ways it's a metaphor for | | | | summit. You look back and wonder how you did |
| situations we encounter along our life journey. Flat | | | | it. Perhaps you vow to never again attempt |
| stretches, difficult climbs, and exciting descents | | | | something that hard. But you also can't escape |
| provide great examples for thinking about the | | | | the sense of accomplishment, the pride in sticking |
| seasons of adversity and joy we all encounter. | | | | with a painful task when it might have been easier |
| A while back I was riding out in the country, | | | | to quit. At the top the memory of fatigue and |
| cranking very slowly up a pretty steep hill. I heard | | | | despair fade a little. |
| another bike approaching from behind; the rider | | | | That doesn't diminish the struggle or the pain, and |
| called out a greeting and I recognized my friend | | | | it doesn't make the next hill any less frightful. It |
| Jeff's voice. As he passed, he offered some | | | | doesn't alter the reality that climbing hills is tough. |
| profound encouragement: Keep going. There's a | | | | But my friend was right. |
| top to every hill. | | | | - No hill is eternal. If you keep moving forward, |
| That's pretty good advice in cycling and in life. | | | | one way or another you eventually reach the top. |
| Sometimes the hills seem endless and your | | | | - Speed is less important than persistence. |
| progress feels agonizingly slow. Climbing hills is | | | | - The only time you fail is when you quit. |
| tough. | | | | - The harder the hill, the greater the satisfaction |
| The problem is that most roads aren't flat, and | | | | at the top. |
| certainly the most interesting journeys contain | | | | If you're climbing a tough hill right now, keep |
| twist, turns, climbs, and descents. Unless you ride | | | | climbing! There IS a top, even if you can't see it |
| the artificial environment of a track, you're going | | | | right now. |
| to encounter some hills. | | | | What lessons have you learned from climbing an |
| Same thing in life-the most interesting paths lead | | | | especially difficult hill? |
| through areas of challenge. There's really no way | | | | |