Sunday, August 1, 2010

The Mountain Top Experience

The last Friday in July dawned beautiful and cool.  It was a wonderful break from the stifling heat that had been with us for over a month, and couldn't have come at a better time.  Three generations set out to conquer Old Rag Mountain in the picturesque Shenandoah with nothing but water bottles, trail mix, and of course, good hiking shoes!  We left the Fredericksburg area before 6 A.M. to drive the one and a half hours to the base of the mountain.  Of course, nothing is ever quick with a family of six, so we didn't reach our destination until almost 8!!  Even so, we got off to an early enough start that this was not a problem.  As we started off the spirits of most of the participants was high.  We had a couple of laggers, but by the time we hit the rocky portion, this seemed to have dissipated!  The teamwork morphed into something spectacular!  The generation gap disappeared as young and old leaned on one another to accomplish something neither could do as well on their own.  Brothers and sisters grabbed hands to pull one another over boulders, young pushed old up rock faces that seemed insurmountable, old watched as young scaled to heights too high for comfort and reigned in the over exuberant!  Reaching the summit was a team effort for the entire group that left a mark in our memories of a time when age ceased to separate us, and helping one another was more fulfilling than going it alone.  Reaching the top together was an unbelievable "mountain top experience".  I pray that the experience on the mountain will continue to bind us together, grandparents, parents, and kids, and that we will travel the bridge between generations more often in the future.

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