Mountaintops look great in photos, but the rivers and the farmland are down in the valleys. Low places grow things.

Height photographs well and grows nothing. Water collects in low places, soil gathers there, and that is where the work of living actually happens. Our fixation on peaks comes from what gets photographed rather than from what produces anything. Low ground is fertile ground, even while it is uncomfortable to stand in.

When you are in a low stretch, ask what can only be done from down here. Repair something, learn something, pay attention to people you have been too busy for. A valley is not a waiting room between peaks, it is the productive part.