60 before 60

It all started two summers ago. Well maybe a little before that…It became a tickle, a yearning in June of 2016 while visiting my brother in Tennessee. We were at his son’s wedding and it was near part of the Appalachian trail. I felt a yearning. A need to see, feel, and walk part of that trail. I am not a hiker. Not an avid walker even, but I felt a pull. But as life goes…life itself gets in the way of things, the wants and desires of a mom dreamer.

Skip forward to another summer, this time 2022 and I am at my now married daughter’s house helping her with a wedding shower for her sister in law. As I am helping with the food and trying to stay out of the way of her guests, I hear a man talking about his recent adventures hiking in the Appalachian Mountains. My ears and heart were drawn to him. I did not know him. He was a cousin to my son in law, but I felt myself gravitating to him.

Finally as the party was winding down I found my chance to corner him. Bless his heart, he was so kind to stop and talk to this lady that for all he knew was just there to help his cousin. I explained who I was and asked asked him about his hike. He sat down and I knew this was going to be a story, not just an explanation. And that was when he had me. He was a storyteller. I was consumed. I stopped my partying help (I even brushed off an Aunt when asked what to do with leftover food! Yikes). The power of his story was strong.

I discovered the hike was something he had always wanted to do too. He was not just a day hiker, it was a month long journey for him. He was an ex Marine, ex Secret Service agent, husband, father to two beautiful children, and man with a story telling soul. He told of the places he stayed. Of being invited into perfect strangers homes along the hike for supper and then staying the night with nothing for protection but a pocket knife. He relinquished it was the people and acquaintances he met along the way that made it such an idelible experience.

He painted the story of the quietest sunrises and solitude of a sunset that settled in your soul. I wanted that. I yearn for that. Still.

He talked of the trees, the hardwoods that towered and lined the trail. The type that don’t grow in Texas where he is from, or Oklahoma for me. He bespoke that the trees themselves had stories to tell. Like the gnarled and weathered people that have spent their lifetime there, they too have stories to tell if you listen.

I leaned in. I shut out the party and the guests and welcomed the rapture of it. I was rude. But I couldn’t break the connection. I was captured. I was intoxicated. I was enveloped in the thoughts of “what if.”

As he ended, I asked if he had journaled his experience and if he thought he would ever write his story. He chuckled and said it was funny that I mentioned that becuse his mom is an English teacher and she has always wanted him to write a book. As a mom and a teacher, I agreed. I told him he should definitely put his words to paper. He said he has always had the nickname “Rooster” and thought it would be fun to write a children’s book with Rooster as his main character capturing adventures along the trail.

And then I knew. I knew it was not just the Appalachians that had drawn me to him. It was the connection of two want to be children’s authors that spliced our invisible string. Two writers hearts.

And so my list was born. 60 things I want to do before I turn 60. The first entry is: To hike the Appalachian trail.

Maybe I’ll see Rooster along the way. He wants to take his kids with him one day. Maybe we can share our stories. I think the hike and the months before turning 60 are full of possibilities. If you have a storytelling heart.