No Escalators Available

I was thinking, as I was on the treadmill, how nice it would be to have downhills on the treadmill.  It gets pretty monotonous, as anyone who has been on one knows.  Sure you can crank up the hills, but you never get a downhill.  I started to long for the outdoors where there is variety and so many things to look at, where there are dirt trails, uphills and downhills, familiar roads and homes, and endless possible paths.  I thought about hills and how I can look at one and dread it or look at it and think that when I get to the top of it I'll feel a lot of accomplishment and there will be a downhill to coast down.  But in life, like on the treadmill, there are no downhills.  We are on a constant uphill battle to reach a higher plane that we can't even conceive how great it will be.  We were meant to have challenges and hardships.  They are what make us stronger and better capable to handle the next hill.  If life isn't hard or isn't a challenge, we aren't growing or moving upward, which is where we need to be.  If life isn't uphill, who fault is it?  Sure we are given challenges in life, but ultimately we choose our own path and if we don't challenge ourselves, set goals, and reach for them with all we've got, who do we have to blame?  And where will we end up?  We were put here to work and grow and help each other.  In life there is no escalator to the top!