I am so glad I took that hike Sunday! Being able to get out and do things like that is a large part of what makes life so very good for me now. Yes, there was a time I considered going to the mall a good hike. Those days are gone now though. These days a 3 mile hike, with part of it uphill is a good hike for me.
This change has come about for many reasons. Age had given me enough wisdom to realize that the life I had been living, really wasn't much of a life. Circumstances and determination allowed me to make really drastic changes.
As I hiked Sunday and once more allowed myself the time to really drink in the beauty that is all around me here, I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt I had made the right choice when it came to creating a better life for myself.
At times, I still find myself totally in awe of the beauty around me. I'm really glad of that because it means I have not reached a point where it has become so familiar I no longer see and appreciate it. I know as long as I continue to do things like go hiking, that will never happen. Hiking does that for me. I think that is true with most people. I say most people, because sadly, some people are just so wrapped in the negatives of life they couldn't see the positives if they danced up to them and French kissed them.
I never dreamed just how much my life would change when I chose to truly live it to the fullest again. Certainly never foresaw myself becoming all that I have. And that's probably just as well because had I seen this coming, I might well have run screaming. At that time, all I would have been able to think was, "I can't do that!" "Can't" has become a word I don't have much to do with anymore when it comes to what I am capable of.
Sometimes, I look at myself and am just totally amazed at what I have become. Of course when I do that, the muse tells me in no uncertain terms I have always been this, that I just lost the way to my true self for a while. The path back to my true self now includes hiking trails that at one point, I would have looked at in horror, and refused to even try. I am so very glad that woman no longer exists. Ecstatic that the woman I now am will take walking stick in hand, and take that trail with eager confidence.
