“I sat down on a rock and cried.”
My brother was recounting for me what happened that night of July 4, 1979.
Just a few days shy of this coming July 4, we were out fishing for salmon on an absolutely beautiful stunning morning. Neither of us got a bite much less catch anything but we did catch up.
We caught up on what it means to be brothers in a boat while dreaming of our days on the mountain.
In fact, this coming July 3 we return – and this time we’ll climb together – to our mutual favorite happy place, the mountains.
“Heard of endorphins?” my brother continued, as the boat slowly rocked to the action of the waves.
“During hard physical exercise endorphins are sometimes produced in the brain that can make you happy and serve as a pain reliever.
“I had started at midnight, alone – I had been alone for three months hiking the wilderness – and just shy of the nearly 15,000 ft. summit, I was beyond exhausted.
“I sat down on a rock and cried. And prayed for strength, and I’m not much of a praying guy. But whether it was endorphins or God, just like that I was happy.
“And that night, July 4, 1979, when the rest of the country far below me was setting off fireworks and celebrating, I sat alone on the top of the highest peak in the contiguous United States, Mount Whitney.
“‘Didn’t you get lonely?’ people ask me.
“Yah, about five minutes,” my brother answered.
“The stars that night…” my brother paused, struggling for composure, brushing away tears at the memory.
“Have you ever had an experience like that?”
I had.
Just this morning in fact as I sat down to write this story and opened to the One Year Bible reading for today, Psalm 147:3,4.
“He gives healing to the broken hearted and binds up their griefs. He counts the number of the stars and calls them all by name.”
This month of July would have been the celebration of my 52nd Anniversary but I lost my wife to cancer just over a year ago.
The stars that night…. The stars he calls by name.
And now it was my turn to brush away my tears.
