After slowly climbing

higher

and higher

and higher,

I was finally there.

I stopped to get a drink from my half empty water bottle

and leaned against a boulder,

resting my tired, aching legs.

It was flattening out and only a few little trees

and shrubs were growing through the cracks in the rocks.

A piercing wind blows and I shiver, chilled raw to the bone.

There is a small path leading up to the top and I walk up it,

following my sister and dad.

I walk briskly over to the ledge and my heart stops.

Time freezes.

I can spot little houses off in the distance, and rolling hills.

I can see huge, green fields and big, blue lakes.

I looked down the side of the tree covered mountain

and thought that so long ago I had been

ascending up the dirt paths,

struggling to climb the rocky terrain

but ecstatic to venture on.

And then I look up.

Huge, gray clouds cover the dark gray sky,

and a raven flies overhead,

gliding gracefully through the sky.

I am a bird,

high on it’s perch,

gazing down upon the Earth far,

far

below.