Long road

Every once in a while the few treacherous hikes I did in Costa Rica come back to haunt me.

That feeling of your legs becoming as heavy as bricks
and your mouth so parched
that heaving breath you take in
the burning in your chest
as you feel you cannot go any further
that your legs would give out from under you
that they will just simply stop, maybe even fall off
you feel like passing out
you look down only at the path in front of you
step after step
so repetitive as you lean your hand on each leg to push yourself up to go further
if you stop now you know you will not be able to get up
you get to the peak of one flight of steps to see another flight and another
you turn a corner in hopes that it will be the end, the summit, the final stop
yet its just more steps that seem to go on forever
you feel like you have hiked for a long time yet you have not gotten that far
as if you were walking up a downward escalator.
When will you see the end, where you can finally rest and feel you have accomplished a feat.
Where the trees will part and the canopy will open
where you can take an unstrained breath of relief in
where all your muscles in your body can relax
where you can be free to go on with the rest of your life...

Sometimes the road ahead seems to be getting longer. The difficult steps ahead do not seem to ever cease.

Do I exercise patience and continue to treck on,
Or do I stop and get out of this place all together?

Or, do I just try to be in the present and take it all in, enjoying the good and the bad of the journey itself.....in hopes it will be all worth it in the end... or at least worth the journey...