Back in 1314, when Robert the Bruce was doing a pre-battle pep talk with his Scottish troops before engaging with the English at Bannockburn, he’s said to have given advice that has been repeated many times in the centuries since:

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, and try again.

More recently, in 1984, a man by the name of Leonard Knight took that advice to heart.

Knight spent four years building Salvation Mountain in the California desert: packed old junk filled in with sand and covered with cement and paint. Then, one day, it all came crashing down.

Can you imagine waking up to that? Four years of work demolished overnight!

But every day, in some part of the world, people see their whole lives come crashing down.

Bombs. Wars. Fires. Floods. Famines.

Be they manmade or natural disasters, they wreak havoc and innocents are left to decide: give up or rebuild.

It’s not their failure. It’s not their lack of success. It’s not down to them. But the choice is the same.

Give up or start over.

Knight didn’t give up. He wasn’t discouraged. Instead, he thanked God for showing him that his mountain wasn’t safe. And he started over.

This time, he used adobe mixed with straw that he then coated with paint. Thousands of gallons of paint.

Today, Salvation Mountain, sitting about 3 miles outside Niland, CA, is a go-to destination for many who want to see for themselves a place that has been immortalised in film. Remember Into the Wild?

We visited Salvation Mountain a few years ago and were wowed then.

It’s still a powerful place – a testament to tenacity.

I’d like to think that I have Knight’s staying power – and perhaps I do – but I know that between the failures, there’s a fair amount of wallowing in self-pity, a lot of frustration, and plenty of self-deprecation.

Last time, I learned a lesson:

I asked Zach, one of the young lads we met while staying at the Ponderosa in Slab City if everyone was particularly religious, given that Salvation Mountain was such a feature.

Some are, some aren’t’, he said. ‘Mainly people have respect for Leonard. Everyone loved Leonard.

And therein lies the spirituality of the place, embodied not in a man-made adobe mountain or in the bible verses painted liberally about, but in the love that Leonard left behind. He wasn’t a Bono or a Bill Gates. He didn’t invent the cure for cancer or win the Super Bowl. He didn’t make millions or win awards. He was a man who believed he had a message to pass on. He was a man who believed in the love of Jesus and the power of faith. He was a man who had everything he needed and though some might say he had sod all, he had it all.

This time, I learned another.

I overcomplicate things. I make them a lot more difficult than they need to be. I need to keep things simple.

And for that lesson, and the chance to revisit Salvation Mountain, I’m grateful.