Climbing the Ladder

The Background:

This photo was taken in Peek-A-Boo slot canyon near Kanab Utah. I have featured several slot canyon photos in the past – there is just something that keeps drawing me back to these unique environments and otherworldly views. This was the first slot canyon that I had visited, and I was completely blown away by the patterns, textures and colors. I can sometimes feel overwhelmed when viewing a large landscape – wondering what element of the scene truly moves me and how do I want to capture it. In a slot canyon, your field of view is dramatically decreased, and you are forced to really focus on the details and the smaller elements that make up the scene - it really gets to the heart of what I love about photography.

The Message:

If you look closely at this image, you will see a small series of indentations or holes in the rock that almost look like a ladder. These are called Moqui (or Moki) Steps and were carved by the Native Americans to climb out of the canyon or to store grain and other items in higher areas.

We sometimes view life as a ladder that we are climbing – every time we improve ourselves or conquer our negative tendencies, we have climbed one more rung. We tend to evaluate our success based on the goal of reaching a specific point or getting to the top. I think that is a mistake – very often in life we will rise a few rungs only to fall back several more - taken objectively, we may be lower than we started or feel that we are not getting anywhere. I believe that we need to change our measure of success – it is not how high we are on the ladder, but rather, how many rungs we have climbed – how many times we had to get back up and push ourselves again. Even if we have fallen over and over and find ourselves climbing the same rungs, we must remember that it is the act of climbing that is our success. Living a life of growth, constantly driving towards a better version of ourselves is our mission. We need to stay positive and keep lifting ourselves up by reaching towards the next level.

(Click here for an introduction to the format and intention of these blog posts)