Love Is Friendship

We are too easily blinded from the true meaning of love, happiness, friendship. We get certain ideas and images in our heads and we expect the events to go exactly as planned. It can be a husband or wife so dedicated to supporting their partner they start to get too distracted by work, it can be a dad so driven to see his son score a touchdown he over trains him and becomes to forceful, it can be a radicalist who thinks bombing a country is going to get them world power, OR, it can be a young man who loves hiking mountains with his dog so much that he tries to take him out during the winter months and gets frustrated with him because his breed can’t handle the amount of snow. For that is exactly what happened over the weekend, and I write this now feeling complete shame and regret.

Thursday night was spent preparing for our 10mile hike up Mt. Moriah. I spent a couple hours re-reading the route and learning the mountain through maps and guide books, packing our gear, and making sure we were well prepared for the trip. The next morning I woke up at 4am to get an early start to the day, due to the fact we had to drive 2 hours and 30 minutes to the trail head. As we started our hike it was more than noticeable that this trail was not heavily hiked by others, which left us breaking trail. Cullen was forced to hike behind me and hop from foot print to foot print just so he wouldn’t get completely buried.

My realization that this hike was not going to be safe for him started to become very noticeable; and just like that all the efforts put into this trip were rendered pointless. I am all about Cullen’s safety, which is the exact reason I decided to turn around, but for whatever reason I found myself frustrated with Cullen. I found myself blaming him for the turn-a-round we were in. The truth is as the day continued on it was me who was in the red. There was no blame to be held on Cull dog. He was perfect in every single way possible, and though he may be able to accompany me on mountain bike trips, kayak trips, four-wheeler trip, and extremely long hiking trips the fact is he does not belong in the Whites during deep snow season.

I realized that yesterday’s challenge was not meant to be the hike up Moriah, but something greater. It was not a journey for my body and mind, but rather it was a journey for my heart. It was a test of compassion, and to see the truth in all things. Cullen is my greatest friend and I vowed to finish these 48 mountains with him by my side. Yesterday taught me that the sometimes in order to go ahead in life we have to take a step back. Never let your own ambitions and thought blind you from your love and understanding of those closest to you. It is not worth the grief you will feel, and I am more than lucky to have such a loyal friend to forgive me at the end of the day. In order to live a life full of love, happiness, and friendship we must be able to see past our own visions and into the hearts of those we love most.

"Love is frienship that has caught fire. It is quiet understanding, mutual confidence, sharing and forgiving. It is  loyalty through good and bad times. It settles for less than perfection and makes allowances for human weaknesses."
-Ann Landers