The Climb: An Adventure

When I was at Police Training, a few years ago, we used to do some intense physical training in the early mornings, before starting our daily class training. One of the training events we repeated over the course of the 3-month academy was stair climbing. Oh... My… Gosh!

We ran several blocks to this parking garage. It was 6 stories tall. That’s 12 flights of stairs! Everyone climbed the stairs, as fast and efficiently as they could, and ran down the parking ramps to the ground floor. At each level on the parking garage, we stopped and did some form of exercise. One level was sit-ups. One level was push-ups. One level was burpees. And so on, until we reached the ground floor to climb the stairs again… and repeat. 5 times. Before running back to the academy.

Never was a group so happy to simply, run! As we left the parking garage and made our way back to the academy, some were running far ahead of the group, and several were barely making a jogging pace, completely winded.

That thought crosses my mind, every now and then, when I think about the climb we make in life.

In my life as a parent of 3 boys, 2 of them with exceptional needs, the climb can sometimes be grueling. Those stairs look much taller when the teacher calls about a meltdown and a trip to the principal’s office. They look taller when another teacher calls about a medical issue and an unplanned trip to the ER. I look up at each flight and groan when my phone rings and the ID name is my kids’ school.

Between the flights of stairs is a small platform. I find myself pausing to take some running steps in-place before ascending the next flight. Sitting down after putting laundry in the washer and dryer, before folding the load just removed. Pausing for a sip of tea after all the dishes are done. Locking the door and taking a breath at the end of class time where I teach GED.

And the descent down the parking ramps begins when the day ends.

Going down… The kids are home from school. Smooth run down one level. Homework issues. Push-ups. Homework taken care of and continue down. Arguments. Sit-ups. Resolution to whatever mishap took place, and down. Nobody has socks without holes for the next day at school. Burpees. Almost there… Time for mismatching socks. Because who matches socks anymore?! Getting closer! Everyone is finally asleep. Crap! I forgot to submit my own school assignment due that night. Burpees. And finally, on the ground floor and the run back, only to rise the next day and climb those stairs again.

In the movie Forest Gump we hear that “life is like a box of chocolates.” In the business world, life is a race. In sports, life is a competition. To the whimsical, life is “a journey.” And for myself, life is an adventure. It’s a workout! But, it’s an adventurous workout.

Why did I use the stair-climb as an example for my life, when I refer to life as an adventure? Well… in addition to the 3 kids, I also live with anxiety. Pushing myself mentally to barely do the physical things is sometimes how it turns out. Sometimes the simple things are the stairs to me. Leaving the security of my house, to drop off and pick up my kids at their school, can be the whole 6 stories of stairs on some days. It’s life. Life just is. And life is what we make it. So, I choose to make it an adventure!

Adventure, to me, is the event of being in motion. Interaction with life. Maybe not people all the time (anxiety), but life. There is so much more to it than the average examples. The adventure is in the climb, the descent, and getting up to do it again. That parking garage will always be in my life. Some days it may wear me out. Ok, most days it does wear me out. But, I also love a challenge. Sometimes I make my own climb harder on myself and find myself looking back at the stairs I cleared. I wonder if I did the right thing. If I should go back (again, anxiety). But, I continue. And, at the end of each day, I think about ways to make the climb a little better the next round. That is why I take pictures of flowers, my kids, the puppies, nature, storms, and pretty much everything. I look for the adventure in life, and I do my best to share that part of life, and me, with my children. I am teaching them that the climb is work, but it doesn’t have to be limited to that alone. It’s not there to wear us out, but to build us up into something amazing, to do amazing things.

It’s an adventure.