On The Mountain

My wife asked me to pick up a prescription at the store for her
tonight. She has a cough and we are getting ready to go on a
vacation for four days. I left work after seven and headed to
the store.

It was crowded at the pharmacy counter. Both pharmacists looked
harried and tired after a long day and each customer in the
makeshift line didn't look any fresher. I stood there about five
minutes in a line that really was no line at all.

My wife's prescription had been called in but most of the folk
waiting in line had their prescriptions called in. There is
nothing to try your patience like waiting in a seemingly slow
moving line.

I started smiling.

Why? I can't exactly answer that. I just did.

I started thinking.

First of all, I wasn't sick. Not that I was gloating or being
condescending, I just realized that every person getting
medicine was more than likely sick with something. It was a
blessing just to be well.

Secondly, I wasn't in a hurry. How many times do we hurry up and
wait? We rush rush rush when we really don't need to. If a
person in front of us takes more than three seconds to go when
the light turns green, we get upset. We rush home to relax and
have to spend an hour trying to unwind from the rushing that
saved us two minutes.

Well, I just relaxed while standing in line.

So I smiled.

Third, I felt the mountaintop.

I realized all over again (each situation in life grants you the
opportunity) that the mountaintop is really not a physical
place, it is a state of mind. When Martin Luther King Jr. said,
"I've been to the mountaintop" he wasn't talking about an actual
mountain. He was in the midst of struggle and rocks and hate
mail and jail. He was talking about a state of mind.

He could stand on the mountain even in the midst of struggle.
He could stand on the mountain even with rocks thrown at him.
He could stand on the mountain with venomous calls and hate mail
daily. He could even stand on the mountain - sitting in jail.

So I smiled.

My smile got so big and obvious that the lady behind the counter
beckoned to me and said, "what's the name?" "Bronner" I replied.
She immediately went and got the prescription even though
everyone else was there before me. She then brought the lady's
prescription IN FRONT of me.

The lady in front of me turned to me and said, "being around you
must have brought me favor." She recognized that she had been
there for a long time before I got there and still had not been
able to get her prescription and suddenly both of us had our
prescriptions ahead of the crowd. I knew she had been there a
long time because I had heard her mumbling angrily in line. She
sensed something out of the ordinary had happened.

I tell you this to remind you that life will always present to
you the opportunity for the mountain or the valley. Always
understand that among animals and man far more live in the
valley than on the mountain and you do have a choice, even if
you feel you are sitting in jail.

And there really may be someone throwing rocks at you.

It wasn't so much that the pharmacist saw me smiling or
recognized me. She saw me standing in a place where the crowd
wasn't. She saw the mountain.

Even if they are throwing rocks, remember,
The higher you are on the mountain
The harder it is to get hit.

Now just close your eyes and feel the cool fresh wind of the
mountain

And don't forget to smile.

~A MountainWings Original~