That's me in the pic (obviously) and I was at a rock climbing complex with some few friends last weekend.

It was my first time doing this sort of thing so needless to say I was a little nervous! We had to initial and sign all of these waivers that our instructor gave us before we began so my heart was really beating fast!

After we threw down some pizza (bye bye that mornings' workout) we had a couple of laughs and we were ready! We were to put these harnesses around us that is used as a safety precaution an after a wiggle here and jiggle there we finally got them on and it was SHOWTIME! So I went...not 2 minutes into the climb I was sweating already and my hands were hurting from trying to hold on to the pegs (or whatever you call them) but I was determined!

I slipped a few times, banged my elbow and knee pretty good but I was pretty damned determined to make it. Well, that plus a female friend of mine was next to me doing her best rendition of Toby McGuire...I couldn't let her show me up!

Of course those last few steps were the toughest and I was just about ready to give up! I was tired, didn't think I could do it and was just willing to write it off as "hey it was my first time ever". But NO, I did it, I got to the top and it felt so good!

Can you imagine if instead I told the instructor "Hey buddy, thats okay, will you please hoist me up and keep pulling the rope until I reach the top or better yet, how about you show me where the stairs were and I could walk up to the top and just raise my hands in victory because I don't like the bumps and bruises, I like INSTANT MANIFESTATION! I want everything to come to me I want and I want it NOW!!! And he would have said "whatever you want crazy man, but I thought you come for the RUSH... to know and then not know...the struggle and the fun of it all"

Sometimes we become so fixated on "what is" we seem to forget that its never the destination we want, its the journey! So as we face these bumps and bruises that this economy will undoubtedly bring us, just remember its always GREATER LATER! I heard this on a song an it sounded so perfect for this time that we are in right now. It said...

"Flowers need water to grow, its gotta RAIN, in order to experience JOY ya need PAIN"!!!!