force is the will to persevere and attain a specific goal... This past week, the Reach Interns have all been in Wales for a spiritual retreat which involved staying in a stunning manor house, eating together with much love and laughter, breathlessly playing competitive ultimate frisbee, furrowing our brows in intense discussions, listening quietly to a few talks and having deep although sometimes loquacious late night chats and generally spending precious time with one another.
...We know that every height that is attained, every step that is taken is the product of patient and difficult effort and that desire is no substitute for them...
...We know that every height that is attained, every step that is taken is the product of patient and difficult effort and that desire is no substitute for them...
We also climbed Mt Snowdon which was an experience in itself! Huddling together for warmth, we began our walk on a cold, blustery morning, the wind whirling wet mist around our startled faces and snatching the breath from our lungs as we trudge up the well worn path. The craggy mountainside falls in folds of green around us as we ascend, the low cloud hanging thick and viscous above our heads. Occasionally we see sheep damp with fog, their nimble feet gripping the side of the mountain as they graze nonchalantly beneath the sheer ridge....A great many difficulties will arise, a great many obstacles will have to be overcome and avoided...
The grassy swathes are clotted with craggy boulders dribbling from jagged scars of rock which become even
more profuse the higher we go. After a while a few of us turn off to climb Crib Goch, most of us foolishly unaware of what we had just let ourselves in for! What followed was 4 and 1/2 hours of nerve-racking climbing, scrambling and crawling beside precipitous drops as we edge our way along a craggy knife-edge, the dizzying heights obscured by the churning mist only to be revealed in disquieting gusts of wind which clear the clouds long enough for us to glimpse bleak rocks hundreds of feet below us.
The cold breath of the mountain wind knifes through us, a rock dislodging from my hand and tumbling into the depths of grey fog when we realise we are slightly lost. A long climb back up the mountain flank is made precarious by ferrous-rich scree which slides deceitfully beneath our feet and hands. Eventually we reach the top and flat ground where I've never been so happy to be able to walk on two feet before!
Although not in the habit of climbing mountains, I did learn that with the will to persevere through difficulties, the determination to overcome obstacles and with every new height attained and every step taken I was forming and refining my character so that...
"...(but) for us the will to do something is the ability to do it." (Edward Whymper)
(Photos courtesy of James Ross)
"...(but) for us the will to do something is the ability to do it." (Edward Whymper)
I felt horrified (at the thought of the near-disaster that could have happened - we won't talk about statistical death and injury, will we?) while laughing to myself quite hysterically at the relief you must all have felt!
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