Yes that is Luke and I working our way down a pretty steep hillside. We all have our demons. Things we fear. Some of us are born with them, some of us acquire our fears as we go on in life. Mine was swimming and open water. I may not have completely conquered it, but I am now able to swim in the open ocean in triathlon events. Luke has never loved heights. I know this because as I carry him up the stairs to bed, he never wants to be too close to the edge. This weekend, we went to Agua Caliente, a camp site in San Diego with the YMCA Indian Guides. Besides the hot water springs, they have mud caves that you get to explore. Not having explored these before, Luke, the rest of the tribe and I explored the caves. What we didn't notice is that as time went on, the caves led us up to the top of some hills that we had to descend to get down to the parking lot. Luke was way in front, as he is one of the older kids. I saw from the top that we were pretty far up and had to go down a very narrow path. I was near the back of the line. I saw Luke start to hesitate and start to let people pass him and let them head down the hill in front of him. He started breathing hard and when I came up, he said, "Dad, I just want to go back. Let's go back through the caves, I don't want to go down this hill!" Tears started to flow. We slowed down and talked about it and I promised him I'd be with him every step of the way. By now, all of the kids were way ahead but nobody said anything but encouraging words to Luke. Finally he said, "Let's do it, but slowly."
So we went down. Slowly. Very slowly. Step by step we went down together. But he did it. Luckily a member of the tribe took this picture and I had it framed in Luke's room with the signature:
Luke,
There is nothing that we can't overcome if we work together.
Dad
John 16:33
Fear takes another hit from the Smith boys.
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