Dear Reader, I am so glad you could make it. The week has been terribly stressful. I have not enjoyed my kids the way I should have. I have struggled with a bad attitude towards some circumstances beyond my control. Generally, I have been a help to those around me, mostly begrudgingly. Have you ever been that way? Trying your darndest to help all the while grumbling under your breath. The stress has got me too. I can feel it all pent up in my bones, restricting my lungs, and robbing me of the joy that could be mine. I tried to let it all go at lunch. I read some Tozer and ate a hotdog. I even went and got a blueberry scone and enjoyed that. I tried not to think about it but the stress has gotten to where the stress is the stress. What I find when I am this stress is that decompression in one go is not possible. I will have to step down my stress incrementally. It takes work and effort. Ultimately it is on what I dwell on. The thought that has been my go-to for some time has been the layer after layer of impossibly deep revelations that come with being human. How we perceive things so much greater than ourselves yet cannot fully understand them. It is like climbing a metaphorical mountain that has a peak you can clearly see there is something at the top but between you and it is infinite mountain. When I think on this it makes even some of the ugliest parts of human history and my own circumstance glimmer as if there are luminescent veins of light running through rot. This depth is in all of humanity even in the most heinous criminal. This in no way lets people off, on the contrary, I think we all become responsible for it. Two words really encapsulate this. transcendental and transcendent. We argue over what lies on the other side of these words. Is it God? I would say yes you may say no. However, one thing stands out to me when these concepts are in play. Human life has so value that is not encapsulated in its own existence but in something beyond its own existence. Even when your tiny ember seems covered in mud. It still can shine so bright even in the cold nights on the infinite mountain.  Photo by [Sweet Ice Cream Photography](https://unsplash.com/photos/fyBW08a-m_I?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText) on [Unsplash](https://unsplash.com/search/photos/mountain-fire?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText)