It was a humbling moment.
In training for our walk across northern Spain next spring on the Camino de Santiago (I wrote about how that came about HERE), my wife Lisa and I recently hiked Wind Cave Trail in Mesa Arizona in the US. While ascending a steep section, we stepped aside to allow a faster couple to pass us. We saw the couple clearly for the first time on reaching the summit. They were seventy-three years old.
I complemented them on their hiking speed up the challenging ascent. The woman shrugged and said, “This was a slow day for us. It took us thirty-five minutes when we normally do it in thirty-three.” (Lisa and I are in our mid-fifties, and it had taken us almost an hour). They were getting ready to hike through Glacier National Park.
As we took in the hard-earned view, we fell into conversation with another woman our age. She told us that she’d struggled with depression and poor health earlier in the year before deciding to start hiking. She’d summited this trail every day for six months straight and had now rebounded both physically and emotionally.
I’m more motivated than ever to continue training because of these encounters. I realized we’d only met these interesting people because we’d decided to do an interesting thing—walk hundreds of miles across Spain on the Camino de Santiago. Had we not committed to this adventure, we wouldn’t have hiked to Wind Cave and wouldn’t have met these inspiring people.
Are you feeling in a rut? Does your social interaction feel stale? Choose to do something interesting. Take a modern dance class. Learn tai chi. Volunteer for Meals on Wheels. Travel to a place you’ve only seen on Instagram. If you do, you’ll have a more interesting life with interesting people, and you’ll take another step toward Becoming Yourself.
