I lift up mine eyes

 

pulled up by mountains

mountains draw me,

consider visiting a cathedral

with its dynamic structure pulling you up to the transcendent,

in my normal life I scurry around in the horizontal,

more in two dimensions than in three,

not particularly up or down, 

backwards in time, or forward, 

where it is easy to forget complexities, deeper and higher realities,

as I trial and error move through the maze,

in my early experience in my religion,

I heard "I lift up mine eyes unto the hills. . ."

and I felt the touch of God in those words,

this day we find a way out of the comfortable, idyllic, alpine valley,

to the top of the highest mountain in Germany, Zugspitze,

a cog railroad climbs us steeply up through lush spruce forest,

then the way up requires a long tunnel through the uplifted gray rock,

our passage up is steady, dark, and of the unknown,

till we find ourselves out of the hole and born again

in snow-covered, glacier-strewn heights,

where the way down and the way out 

expand us toward their greatness,

Looking back down at the valley where we started.

in this world of high mountain, of rock and snow,

and revelations of view that just cannot be held,

there are restaurants perched on the raw surfaces

with bathrooms, heat, food, even beer, to take care of us,

I take picture after picture,

and do my best to "get it,"

though I still only glimpse what I feel 

to be the immensity of that of God,

the great ranges of the Alps spread out, 

magnificent, before us,

the day clear enough to let the sun draw light

to spotlight the towering peaks after peaks before us,

I return to the mountains often,

and I always hope to have my spirit lifted up,

just as a cathedral can pul me toward my best,

I want to lift up my soul unto the hills.

by Henry H. Walker

September 25, ‘24