"This I Believe" Zoe Zulakis, Northern Rockies CM

I am an NPR junkie. My favorite series is admittedly an oldie and undoubtedly a goody. It’s called This I Believe. This I Believe is enlightened by the variety of the everyday and not so everyday notions of its eager contributors who submit their beliefs to the NPR gods to be read on air. I approach a number of my own beliefs with a certain amount of passiveness. It is a habit that I am trying to break. It has taken me until the approach of my quarterlife to realize that your beliefs are what charge you with the inspiration to live your life as you would like it to be lived. It takes consciousness of your circumstances and confidence in your belief to make thoughtful and sustainable contributions to this world.

The mission (belief) of the MCC is to provide its members with the tools and guidance necessary to become contributing members to society through service, stewardship, leadership, and civic engagement. All of this of course is simply rhetoric—a mission to be fulfilled by US!! So while we venture to become the next great contributors to our organization and to our community, take the time perhaps to ask yourself why you are here. Certainly it was some kind of belief! Your contribution to this organization will be inspired by your belief!! And it can be whatever you want it to be!!

Here is mine….I believe in the mountains. They are the watershed, the great giver of thy nature, the great feeder of endless cycles.They are the mark of our history, of our mutability, of our organic fate.They are what we must venture over in order to see beyond.They touch the heavens, but remain grounded.I believe in the mountains.I know that they will challenge me. I know that I am small. I know that sometimes I am quiet and unsure. But I am sure of something. Something that has invigorated me. I believe in the mountains. Our lives are about climbing them. And at the greatest peak there will simply be more peaks in the distance. I know these things. But this is why I believe in the mountains. Because I believe in myself to overcome them and not only that but to LOVE them, to learn from them, to leave them.And so here I am, in Big Sky. Because I believe in the mountains. This, I believe.