of climbing mountains and the passage of storms

i've been to the mountain top many times. i've felt the mountain crumble
beneath my feet becoming lower than the valley i'd just left. i've
fought and struggled, blazing my own path from the valley to the next
mountain top when i couldn't find a path there. it is my hope that
others were then able to use the path i'd left. through all this, i've
battled many demons, mostly my own. often, the only fragment of hope i
have had is that these troubles are only transient. the storm will
always pass. often the next storm is already much closer than the
horizon will ever be, but it too shall pass, and the journey continue.
it is my prayer that the storm never learns of its ignorance nor changes
its ways. we who survive the storm and learn from it, are stronger for
having passed through it.

--- The Dancer in the Shadows