The mountains
will exact payment
from all those
who climb-

Making you stop,
and pay attention
to something
beyond yourself.

Forcing you to
learn that any
journey worth taking:
begins with that
single step.

Extracting something
from your heart,
that frees you up
to be better.

Daring you to
risk the guts
to make the changes
you’ve been talking
about instead
of sitting around,
talking.

And if you listen,
close enough,
it will gently soothe
your fears and say:

My dear one,
of course it will be hard,
and steep and bloody.
That is called becoming.
But my gorgeous scope
wasn’t made through
the ease of a day,

And so it is
with you.