Think Like a Mountain*

“You must approach not to conquer, but to be taught.”

Ella Young, Irish Mystic

Mountain is.

Cool and strong. Tender, well-built. Level headed. A tall drink of water.

We dream of Mountain to keep us free, to set us straight. Lift us up again, to fly right. Upturn the wrongs we have made.

Guide us back to our Light.

We entrust Mountain with the care of our Spirit. Her loveliness calls us to her. To pick up the pieces, from the desolate bone-yard our life has become.

She leads us to still waters.

Shaded and diversely vegetated, Mountain shelters our sorrows.

Fierce guardian for all. We, her precious children, each one singularly cherished like no other.

How does Mountain think?

She is deliberate, reflective and takes-in the big view.

Contemplates in slow mo. And in no time at all. Steadfast over millennia, she is unmoved by petty urgencies. Criss-crossing the centuries without a wristwatch.

She is ever patient, unceasingly kind.

Her massive heart encompasses the entirety of Nature and all consequence.

Mountain is not deceived by half-truths or partial pictures. Wholeness is her name.

Steady on her feet. Solid to the marrow.

She cannot be broken.

Lighthearted and unreservedly free, she is easily amused.

At the ready, to lend an empathetic ear to our sad tales and a soft shoulder to cry them out.

Mountain picks us up. In that instant we trip over God, yet again – for the hundredth time in a row.

“Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop away from you like the leaves of Autumn.”

John Muir

The sage ones among us apprehend Mountain by attuning their breath with hers. Steadily, rhythmically. In and out. Until unison is delivered.

Aligning with the soft beat of her pulse, so too, we penetrate the labyrinth of our own hearts. And meet ourselves for the very first time.

“We are now in the mountains and they are in us, kindling enthusiasm, making every nerve quiver, filling every pore and cell of us.”

John Muir

“You can talk to stones. You can talk to trees. You can talk to mountains. You can talk to the Earth. But you must make a sort of roadway – and you make it by sending out love. If you have sufficient love, you can get a response very easily.”

Ella Young, spoken in 1957 interview

May we humans be honored with the privilege of fluency in this sacred, Native tongue. 

“We meditate on being the river so that we can experience, within ourselves, the fears and hopes of the river. If we cannot feel the rivers, the mountains, the air, the animals, and other people from within their own perspective, the rivers will die and we will lose our chance for peace.”

John Seed

*Seed, Fleming, Macy, Naess