This coming Saturday I leave for South America. It is my plan to climb 3 moutains and explore beautiful terrain of a continent full of spiritual mystery.  I never like to say that I will conquer a mountain because I believe a mountain allows you to be there.  It yields to our presence and breathes in and out with each step.  The mountain sees us and we see it if we are concious and paying attention.  The mountain has given me a gift.  Throughout my training for this upcoming adventure, I climbed many mountains.  Many I summitted, some I did not.  The mountain refused to be rushed.  It made me go slow and sometimes made me come back for another day.  I was given the gift of knowing when to say enough, when to turn due to weather and when to recognize physical signs not to be ignored.   This past summer I climbed with a friend who felt the need to rush the mountain.  I watched with amazement as she almost became a statistic by not being patient, by feeling the need to forge ahead.  In life, if we sometimes slow down and look around we can see pitfalls that may lie in wait.  Impatience can bring trouble and blind our view and on the mountain its a bad thing to have a blind view.  Please follow a different terrain to South America and I hope you enjoy the journey.  Its not about the summit but the steps it takes to get there.