MY CLIMB TO GRACE

BY KRISTINE CLINE

Two summers ago , I had an experience that taught me the importance and power of expressing grace. I was working as a counselor at a summer camp for Christian Scientists in Colorado. One day during staff training week, before the campers arrived, a group of staff members, including me, headed out for the day to explore a place where we would be taking campers bouldering later in the summer. This is a type of low-altitude rock climbing that I had enjoyed doing at camp for years. That day, we weren't wearing any climbing gear, because the routes that we followed didn't have any tricky elements.

After bouldering around a granite rock pile called Turtle Rocks for a while, I decided I wanted to find my own route. Although we would never encourage campers to do the same thing, I'd had several years of bouldering experience and was really into the idea of exploring and finding new routes to follow. I was convinced that I could "spider-monkey," or climb my way around wherever I wanted.

I came across a crevice that was about 25 feet long and just wide enough for me to place my hands and feet into the crevice so that I could slowly climb down along the steep crack. It would be simple, I assured myself. And it worked, at first. As I worked my feet into various spots in the crevice, I found I was able to slowly descend down the side.

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