Count Your Blessings!

" Be in love with your life. Every minute of it! " - Jack Kerouac. 

On a recent trip to the mountains for a fun and adventurous day of hiking, a really good friend of mine  and I spent much of our drive talking about what it really means to enjoy life and live in the moment. 

As many of you know, I enjoy being active and participating in sports and recreational activities, as much as I am physically able to. My most recent endeavour consisted of hiking a three kilometer trail in Waterton, Alberta on my fore- arm crutches. When I first set out to acheive this goal, I got questioned a lot, not on my ability, but why I wanted to pursue hiking in the first place. 

Why not? Why shouldn't I hike a mountain? Why should I not seek adventures and the adrenaline rushes associated with them? 

There is so many people in the world who, everyday are faced with an immense amount of struggle and hardship. There are so many people who have it worse off than I do. I have no reason to complain. I have no reason to utter excuses. 

So, I choose to live my life in the moment. I choose to have adventures. I choose to try new things, even if it sacres the shit out of me. 

That mountain was like a metaphor for my entire life. It's inclines symbolized every single challenge that I have encountered. Then, just as life does, everything smoothed out again and the climb gradually got easier. I have learned that the best views come after the most difficult climb. 

It reminded me that no matter how challenging that climb proves to be, I have to keep going because countless others do, too.