New Beginning for this Blog
When I started this little blog, my intent was to begin sharing my thoughts as a mom whose nest is emptying. For myself, blogging is cathartic. I have come to many realizations about myself in the process of blogging. I posted here a couple of times and then not again for a whole year.
SO
This new-ish blog is a sort of mid-life crisis chronicle. I mean... I don't think it's a crisis, per se... but a professional may term it differently.
Life is a series of choices and living with those choices and hopefully making the best of the results of those choices. I admit that I have not necessarily made the best of my choices. Many times, I have moped and whined, feeling like things were happening to me and that I had no control. I was not really seeing or trying to make the best of a situation that I have choices in.
I married at 19. And every choice I made for the last 27 years was for my family. Which was the right thing for me to do. I look back and I feel successful. Our sons are amazing young men and we have been married for 27 years. People are the most important and I have no regrets. But as a 46 year old woman, peering into the future, I realize that I have come to a place where I need something for myself.
I am chuckling in my head because I am thinking about people that I know in my age range and how many of us, when our kids are leaving and gone, start doing things that look crazy to the rest of the world. And I fully realize that what I am setting out to do looks crazy. In fact, my boss, who is a hiker, told me "that's nuts."
In two years, my husband is eligible to retire. At that point, our youngest son will be a sophomore in college. We have talked for a little while about what life will look like after he retires. He wants to travel. And I do too, but we are terrible traveling companions. We argue a lot. I cannot tell you how many times I have threatened to cut his finger off if he pointed me in a direction, one more time. Currently, he wants to buy a motorcycle and travel on that, with me on the back. This sounds awful to me and not at all like being in control of my own life. And I am not interested in getting my own motorcycle and driving it around the country. I want to hike through the Appalachian Trail. This is the only thing on my bucket list.
Many years ago, I picked up a library book by an author I'd never heard of. I picked it up because we share a last name. The book was wonderful and set my imagination on fire. At the time, my husband and our boys were committed to Scouting. It was their thing. And I supported it being their thing because I homeschooled them and when they went camping, I was alone and it was quiet and wonderful. I admit that there were times that jealousy and resentment got the better of me because I felt left out, but for the most part, I was happy for them to go and do their thing.
The book was A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson. He tells his story, in a humorous way, of hiking the Appalachian Trail. I remember thinking that our family should do this and that I really wanted to do this. I do not remember expressing this out loud and I did not think much about it until a couple of weeks ago.
Two years ago, we went to Virginia to visit our son at VMI. One of the day trips that I wanted to take was too Shenandoah National Park. The Appalachian Trail goes through Shenandoah National Park. So Noah and I hiked until I was standing on the AT. The photo of me, standing on the AT has been m Google avatar for a long time. It's like, prophetic, man.
A couple of weeks ago, I went with Sam to a retirement seminar. It was the most awful adult thing that I have had to do to date. But it really got me thinking about this time in our lives. Then, suddenly, this plan materialized in my head like magic! Sam could get his travel in and I could get the single thing on my bucket list accomplished. I'll through hike the AT and he could be my support person along side the trail. He could even get a motorcycle and do his little motorcycle traveling that sounds so awful to me. Plus, he has all this camping and hiking knowledge to help me!
So this is a really long post to explain what the purpose of this blog is. My head is swirling with a hundred possibilities and I am quite obsessed with it. I am inviting you to join me on my mid-life crisis.
SO
This new-ish blog is a sort of mid-life crisis chronicle. I mean... I don't think it's a crisis, per se... but a professional may term it differently.
Life is a series of choices and living with those choices and hopefully making the best of the results of those choices. I admit that I have not necessarily made the best of my choices. Many times, I have moped and whined, feeling like things were happening to me and that I had no control. I was not really seeing or trying to make the best of a situation that I have choices in.
I married at 19. And every choice I made for the last 27 years was for my family. Which was the right thing for me to do. I look back and I feel successful. Our sons are amazing young men and we have been married for 27 years. People are the most important and I have no regrets. But as a 46 year old woman, peering into the future, I realize that I have come to a place where I need something for myself.
I am chuckling in my head because I am thinking about people that I know in my age range and how many of us, when our kids are leaving and gone, start doing things that look crazy to the rest of the world. And I fully realize that what I am setting out to do looks crazy. In fact, my boss, who is a hiker, told me "that's nuts."
In two years, my husband is eligible to retire. At that point, our youngest son will be a sophomore in college. We have talked for a little while about what life will look like after he retires. He wants to travel. And I do too, but we are terrible traveling companions. We argue a lot. I cannot tell you how many times I have threatened to cut his finger off if he pointed me in a direction, one more time. Currently, he wants to buy a motorcycle and travel on that, with me on the back. This sounds awful to me and not at all like being in control of my own life. And I am not interested in getting my own motorcycle and driving it around the country. I want to hike through the Appalachian Trail. This is the only thing on my bucket list.
Many years ago, I picked up a library book by an author I'd never heard of. I picked it up because we share a last name. The book was wonderful and set my imagination on fire. At the time, my husband and our boys were committed to Scouting. It was their thing. And I supported it being their thing because I homeschooled them and when they went camping, I was alone and it was quiet and wonderful. I admit that there were times that jealousy and resentment got the better of me because I felt left out, but for the most part, I was happy for them to go and do their thing.
The book was A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson. He tells his story, in a humorous way, of hiking the Appalachian Trail. I remember thinking that our family should do this and that I really wanted to do this. I do not remember expressing this out loud and I did not think much about it until a couple of weeks ago.
Two years ago, we went to Virginia to visit our son at VMI. One of the day trips that I wanted to take was too Shenandoah National Park. The Appalachian Trail goes through Shenandoah National Park. So Noah and I hiked until I was standing on the AT. The photo of me, standing on the AT has been m Google avatar for a long time. It's like, prophetic, man.
A couple of weeks ago, I went with Sam to a retirement seminar. It was the most awful adult thing that I have had to do to date. But it really got me thinking about this time in our lives. Then, suddenly, this plan materialized in my head like magic! Sam could get his travel in and I could get the single thing on my bucket list accomplished. I'll through hike the AT and he could be my support person along side the trail. He could even get a motorcycle and do his little motorcycle traveling that sounds so awful to me. Plus, he has all this camping and hiking knowledge to help me!
So this is a really long post to explain what the purpose of this blog is. My head is swirling with a hundred possibilities and I am quite obsessed with it. I am inviting you to join me on my mid-life crisis.
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