Over every mountain there is a path, although it may not be seen

Theodore Roethke, poet of earth and spirit, once declared: “Over every mountain there is a path, although it may not be seen from the valley.” These words carry the strength of prophecy and the comfort of hope. They speak to all who stand in shadow, gazing upward at challenges that seem too steep, too vast, too impossible. Roethke reminds us that even when the way is hidden, there is always a way. Every mountain, whether of stone or of circumstance, has a path that leads beyond it, though from the valley it lies unseen.

The origin of this wisdom lies in Roethke’s own life of struggle and triumph. A man who wrestled with despair and yet created beauty from darkness, he knew what it meant to stand in the valley of hardship. Yet through poetry he found his path, a way to ascend the towering obstacles of the soul. He had walked through inner wilderness and learned that hidden within every trial is the possibility of rising, of finding the trail that lifts the weary upward. His words are thus not idle metaphor, but truth carved from lived experience.

The ancients, too, spoke of hidden ways beyond visible barriers. The Greeks told of Odysseus, who when trapped in the cave of the Cyclops, found no visible escape until his wits revealed the secret path beneath the monster’s blindness. The Israelites, hemmed in by the Red Sea, saw only certain death until the waters parted to reveal a way through. Again and again, history teaches: from the valley, the eye sees walls; but from the summit, the spirit sees roads. The unseen does not mean the nonexistent.

Consider also the story of Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, the first to conquer Mount Everest. To many, the peak was unclimbable, a fortress of ice. From the valley, no path could be discerned. Yet step by step, with courage and faith, they found a way upward. Their triumph became not only a physical conquest but a symbol of human endurance. They proved Roethke’s truth: every mountain hides its path, and it is only by rising that the hidden becomes visible.

The lesson is clear for our own lives: despair often comes when we stand too long in the valley, staring only at what we cannot see. But life demands trust—that beyond the ridge lies a way, that effort and perseverance reveal what the eye cannot yet behold. The mountain is not there to crush us, but to call forth our courage. It whispers: climb, and you will see what now is hidden.

Practically, this means we must act even in uncertainty. Do not wait for the full path to appear before you move. Take the first steps, however small, and the way will unfold. When facing hardship, illness, or failure, remember that what you cannot yet see may be revealed by endurance. Seek counsel, seek faith, seek patience—but above all, seek movement. The valley is not your destiny; the summit awaits.

Thus Roethke’s words endure as a torch for all who struggle: “Over every mountain there is a path, although it may not be seen from the valley.” Let this truth steady the heart and strengthen the hands. For every trial hides its road to victory, every sorrow its door to healing, every darkness its unseen dawn. And those who climb, though weary, will one day stand in light, knowing the path was there all along, waiting for their courage to find it.