Is it the same
the traveling up
as the journey down?
The burden’s heavy either way.

The load seems weighty
as I march up.
But with sudden lumbering
the burden shifts
and the path once clear
is now unseen,
This step in faith
as I descend
from glory heights
to furnace room.

This path’s dug deep
the tread worn thin
so familiar this routine
of go between.
To take one load and then return…
what consequence would fare
to never use the stair?

My friends, Beth and her husband, were doing some remodeling and redid the staircase to their basement.  She sent me pictures of the progress and some of the old steps that had become very deeply worn through the years of use.  It made me think of my grandmother who always did her wash in her basement.  I thought about the loads of laundry she must have done in her many years and began to think about carrying laundry up and down stairs.  For some reason this made me think about the ups and downs in our  journey through life.  I wonder if we can live mature lives if we live only within our mountaintop experiences?  It seems we have to be able to appreciate it all, the upper floors and the basements.  What would it cost us to live without one or the other?  Who would we really be without our basements or without our upper floors?

(Above photo from my friend, Elizabeth Degallier.  Thank you, Beth.)