Peaks and Valleys

My friend Mary Jo is both a comic and a sage.  Even in her wittiest statements, there's a nugget of wisdom to be taken away.  Perhaps it's the teacher in her that lends itself to offering humbly so many teachable moments.  Such was the case a few months ago when she commented that life is full of peaks and valleys.  She said that she and her husband were currently on a peak, while my dying mom and I were in a valley.  Yet, she said that the circumstances could change abruptly and we could find the tables turned without a moment's notice.  While mine has been a gradual ascent back out of the valley, I found myself surprisingly on a peak recently. I felt energy and excitement of the likes I hadn't felt in a very long time.  The feeling was almost a stranger to me.  Yet, while I shouted for joy from my peak, I had encountered several people who were in various stages of their own valleys.  Such is life really.  It's all a balance, a pendulum swinging back and forth.  There will be happiness and sadness, exhilaration and disappointment, peaks and valleys in our lives.  And through it all, whether on the highest peak or in the depths of the lowest valley, there is opportunity to cling to the good, hang onto hope and love one another.