Older than I Was, but Not Yet Old

Friday date night began mid-morning with a hike along Wychus Creek. (Have I ever mentioned how much I love date nights that start in the morning?!)

After following the noisy little stream, the trail veers upward over boulders where the path isn’t always obvious. (I may or may not have led us off the main route to a drop-off once.)

One of the more delightful things about this particular trek was the accidental discovery of it. Dan had geo-cached along Wychus Creek with a friend long before there was a trail. And I hiked it a few years back, but from a different starting point that involved scrambling down a small overlook to reach the foot of the falls.

Which made this recent hike a completely new experience.

The thing I love about exploring trails is this: it’s a way to slow down in nature with the people you care about.

While I’m on a hike, I can’t cross anything off my to-do list. So instead, I pay attention to what’s around me. The pleasure of conversation with my husband. Impossibly tall trees. Aroma of sun-baked pine needles. A gurgling creek. Overhanging boulders.

And always, I’m so grateful that I can still get out in God’s great creation. I can still negotiate every up- and downhill, every boulder crossing. I still have mobility. I can still breathe easily in and out. 

But it won’t always be this way. Because Dan and I aren’t getting any younger. Not sure how this happened, but we’re actually getting the reverse of younger.

Author Bonnie Sours Smith has this to say about aging and celebrating life:

“The calendar and the world may call it old age, but I don’t. To me, it just feels like older age, older than I was, but not yet old. It feels like something to celebrate, to live joyfully.”

I love this attitude. Even though the calendar indicates otherwise, I still feel young, maybe because I’ve been graced with good health, and mobility, and a love for the outdoors and for adventuring to new places with this venturesome man I married.

This piece isn’t so much about hiking. Or feeling young when one is … ahem … older.

It’s about appreciating what age we are here and now, and where we are here and now. It’s about paying attention to the life we’ve been given to live, and counting all the graces that flow over us with every breath we take.

There’s this little psalm that encourages me every time I read it, referring to those who have right standing with God:

“They will still bear fruit in old age; they will stay fresh and green.” – Ps 92:14

What if we could stay fresh and green, and still bear fruit in old age—fruit like kindness and love and peace and patience? It’s possible!