A Journey to The Top - A Hiking Recollection feature article

Fun and adventure: these two words are very popular with most people.  Who does not want to be happy? Everyone wants excitement - that’s our nature as human beings.  That’s exactly what happened to me when my Verbum Dei Community organized a hiking recollection in Mount Batulao last January 26, 2019.

Hiking is not a new word to me, and neither is recollection but what made me more excited was the fact that this is I can say my first serious hiking experience.  I had a taste of it when I was a boy scout and some of my community’s activity but it is not as rigorous as this.

When the day of the hiking came I was very excited. I am a nature lover (same as St. Francis) Ha! Ha!  Ha!  By thinking that I will be seeing beautiful scenery really made me excited.  Now the hiking proper -  at first it was easy but as the time passed by little by little I got tired and added to that I am not an athletic person ( I just feel like one) Ha!  Ha!  Ha! The journey to the peak was not easy but you know what is one of the things that inspired me? It was the kindness of the people around me (including the guides), they pushed me to continue and not to give up.

It was also a great opportunity for me to give an input at the second to the last station of the mountain (it has four)  iven that it’s nice to share about God as well.  Having a chance to speak with the beautiful nature as your background, made me feel like Jesus in the Gospel.  Indeed we can see God in Nature.

After my input, there was one last journey up to the peak but this time with more energy - thankfully we made it. Yehey! When we reached the top,  I can’t help but pray. Indeed God exists - if not, who will be able to create such beauty that we call nature. 

One of the things that we did in the activity was to help in cleaning the area which was a good experience for me because nature is God’s gift that all of us must enjoy and take care of. We must take our part in making it clean because all of us benefit from it.

I will never forget the experience that I had in the hiking recollection because I believe we can associate our life to be like climbing the mountain - there are moments that we will get tired, disappointed,  frustrated, and sad but as we strive to not give up and continue the journey in the end we will win. You will realize that God is with you in different moments you just did not notice. He is there with the people who helped you along the way.
​
I am still a work in progress, there are a lot of things that I need to work on in my spiritual life, family life and myself but like what happened in the hiking recollection, I want to strive not to give up because I want to believe that there’s something beautiful that awaits me in the finish line. I wish you the same as well. Happy journeying! 

---

With thanks to Francis Jerome Santos and the WordNews team