we need you.

this is sarah.  again.  i haven't written anything on here in three months, which is no good.  i'm surprised josh hasn't shunned me.  not that he's the shunning type.

we've had a pretty exciting few days with where you are, and for the studio in general.  

call us facebook ignorant, but we really had no idea how great it would be to start a fan page.  all of the sudden, we feel so much momentum, we feel propelled.  

all of this facebook stuff, and feeling supported by so many people, has really made me think.

we can't do this alone.  we say that, everyone says that.  but really.  this is impossible without you. 

one time i climbed a mountain.  a pretty real mountain, i think.  it was amazing.  i climbed it with three other people, and we were a pretty ragtag group... none of us expert mountain-climbers by any stretch of the imagination.  me, lucretia, mike, and joe.

it was a really hot day, and it was a really steep mountain.  we were so inspired at the bottom looking up.  it all seemed so possible, so beautiful, such a perfect thing to do.

then we started climbing.

and then i considered hurling my body off the mountain so that i could be free from the pain tearing through my muscles.

in the initial stages of this-was-a-huge-mistake-edness, i thought it was all pretty funny.  here we were, stuck halfway up a mountain, miserable.  that's comedic.  and then it pretty much lost all humor to me and i was pretty irritated.  i'm so glad mike was with us, though.  he cracked jokes left and right, kept us laughing.  he made it so much more bearable.  couldn't have made it without him.

another big obstacle was taking breaks.  it was necessary to take breaks on this climb.  absolutely.  the problem was that whenever we sat down, we (or i...) found it extremely hard to get up.  i felt completely enraptured with the idea of taking breaks, long breaks, and that just wasn't going to work if we ever wanted to make it up to the top.  i'm glad lucretia was with us, though.  she knew that no matter how hard it was, we needed to get up and go. couldn't have made it without her.

at certain points during the climb, we'd stop and look at the enormity of what we still had to climb.  it was dizzyingly overwhelming.  seemingly impossible.  and profoundly discouraging.  it was horrible.  i'm so glad joe was with us, though.  he set tiny, achievable goals for us as we climbed... make it to this rock, or climb for three minutes without any breaks.  couldn't have made it without him.

about a third of the way up, we realized that our half liter bottles of water were gone.  completely.  the sun was so strong--sucking up every ounce of fluid in us.  i'm glad i was there, though.  that morning, i had thrown an extra 1.5 liter bottle of water into my backpack for the climb; the perfect amount to share between us for the rest of the climb.  couldn't have made it without me.

...

right now, we stand in front of a mountain, and we aren't foolish enough to think that we're going to be able to do this alone.  we need you.  and maybe you're reading this, thinking that you have no idea what you can do, how you can help, but you have something.  everyone has something.

so come to the foot of this mountain, bring what you have.  bring your talents, your words, your love and concern.  let's dig our feet into the earth and climb until pain tears through our muscles.  

and then let's keep climbing.  

climbing and climbing through the pain until we see no mountain ahead of us, can turn around, and take in the view.  hold hands, dance, and celebrate.

and the climb will be worth it.  the view from the top is amazing, i know it.

we need you.