The Deepest Valley on the Highest Mountain

I am humbled and inspired by the moments of grace that touch my life. It is a source of awe to me that so often a person, a book, a song, or a passing comment will open up a new way of thinking or dealing with an issue that is stressing my life. The following passage was part of a recent daily meditation and it struck a very deep cord, especially when combined with the message of a book that I had just finished. I will let you judge for yourself if it has meaning for you.
Your blessings have your name on them; so do your lessons! Your greatest blessing appears before you cleverly disguised as your most difficult challenge, as your greatest obstacle, or as an extremely negative experience you are forced to handle all by yourself. What a blessing! What a blessed opportunity to face the truth, forgive yourself and others, practise faith, develop trust, be still, and know," Right where I am, God is!"

This passage from a recent reading in my most coveted spiritual guide, Faith in the Valley, was made all the more poignant and relevant as its message was echoed in another thought altering book that was recommended by my stalwart friend, Sonja. This book, Miracle in the Andes, gives a first-person account of what transpired following the crash of the plane carrying the Uruguayan rugby team into a desolate and brutal glacier in the Andes. The details are harrowing and the experiences are beyond anything we can imagine. Yet the overriding message is totally life affirming in the face of devastating loss. That message is that what truly matters is love: love of family, love of friends, love of God. These young men faced almost insurmountable obstacles and when they realized that help would not be coming and that outside rescue was not possible, they banded together and scaled this highest mountain from the depths of this deepest valley. In this spiritual and emotional valley they did indeed have to face the truth of their situation and themselves. They had to forgive themselves and others. They had to practise faith, develop trust, be still and truly know that where they were, God was with them as the source of the love which kept them alive as they sought to find a way home. They learned to take each day one breath and one step at a time. We each deal with valleys in our lives and we should be ever grateful that we will never have to endure what these young men had to. Yet, for what ever our valley experiences, may the lessons of their struggle and the resulting awareness be a guiding light as we travel out of our valley into the light of the absolute love that awaits.