Sublime - Kevin Covucci

Every year at the beginning of the summer my church has their annual retreat in the wilderness of Shenandoah, Virginia. This beautiful location brings along many spiritual feelings for many, many people. However, this place is where my only experience that I can only truly describe as being sublime took place. I was hiking up a nearby Mountain called North Mountain with my father and two of my good friends from church. I have been up this mountain many times with my camp before, however we never climbed to the very top of the jagged rocks that reach out over the side of the mountain until this trip. We all struggled up the steep incline and fought against the rough terrain. It got down to a point where we had to climb one at a time single file and I was in the lead. Once I reached the very last point I was extremely focused and heaved myself onto my stomach of the huge boulder that acted as the peak of the mountain. When I stood up and looked out into the valley of trees and life I had this amazing feeling rush over me that I could just not describe. I was mere inches away from falling hundreds of feet to what would unavoidably be my death. However I had this amazing feeling of power that literally took my breath away. As everyone else slowly made their way up the crest we all had the same reaction. We literally stood there as a group for what had to have been at least 15 minutes of total silence. That feeling I had is one that I will never truly be able to describe, but I desire so strongly to feel again, it was literally the most amazing thing I have ever experienced in my entire life.