about midlife, rivers, and roads

I'll say this: my personal midlife is excellent. I'm privileged and lucky and I know it.

Jake, Vera, Emma

See: privy.  To have the opportunity to tackle another bucket list item with these excellent travel companions. The hiking in RMP (Rocky Mountain National Park) was bonus! We had to cross some rivers and drive many long roads to get there. So very worth it.

Because this is what we came to experience:

The Tallest Man on Earth, and the Head and the Heart, at Red Rocks Amphitheater. And it was as amazing as the rest of the trip.

I guess that once you are over 50 years young, you feel the finite nature of your time on earth a bit more and you start with ticking of the bucket list items. At least, we seem to be doing it, my love and I. Most of our items seem to involve traveling.

my amazingly comfortable camelbak, I've had it for many years and it still looks new

Lucky us then, that we have the amount of days off that Europeans find no longer incredible (starting with 5 or 10 daysoff is just inconceivable for most Dutch people). But there are other advantages of being over 50. Priorities change, and I care less to impress other people.

During the hiking, I often walked alone (being the slow poke and least fit) which suited me in the most excellent way because I am such an introvert. However, another highlight of hiking arrived in the form of my friend Julie, who was kind enough to keep pace with me. Like a true introvert, I do not have many close friends, and it is difficult to describe what I felt: joyful recognition of the meeting of minds/souls...which went way too fast. Telling me that I should make it a point to connect more with those precious few, in my 'old age' (ahem).

And thus, I got a taste of wind-in-my-hair-let-it-all-go, causing me to drive with the windows open and blasting the Head and the Heart singing along out of tune at the top of my lungs this afternoon.

view from our cabin

With everything going on in the world, it is not always easy to forget that others may never have these chances (for too many reasons to count). And I don't actually forget. I just try to make the best of my life in spite of it , and I try to do what I can to alleviate things, and I will vote, with my head and my heart.