Time Well Spent–How About a Hike?

How about a hike? Our customary, pre-birthday ritual of brainstorming the perfect party activity had been made even more difficult by the significance of my daughter’s upcoming, milestone birthday.

A hike??? A hike! Our excitement grew as we synergistically devised various scenarios for how best to spend her most-important day. A hike, in the outdoor world that my daughter loved so much was an intriguing concept, and my mind created images of her – and her closest, 13-year old friends – backpacking through the forest.

A hike! A warm mixture of pride and contentment rose up within me and I marveled at this soon-to-be 13-year-old young woman in front of me. Gone were the days of Chuck-E-Cheese and laser tag, Rolie Polie Olie and the Disney Channel. She was becoming her own person and as her distinct self unfolded, I couldn’t help but to notice just how many of the experiences – and influences – of her young life were now becoming evident.

Physical activity, movement, and respectfully caring for your body are strong values within our family and my daughter, throughout her youth, has frequently been invited to participate in the activities that we love such as hiking, biking and martial arts. A hike, as this soon-to-be teenager’s ideal birthday party, exemplified a true love of healthy physical activity and clearly illustrated how our “family” passion had, now, firmly become her own.

“Mom, look at this amazing view!” her excitement was contagious and, as the hiking party proceeded I, once again, found myself moved by the traits I saw in my daughter. As she snapped pictures and marveled at the specter around her, I thought back on all the time spent on such walks, pointing out nature, enthusiastically educating her on the world around her and answering her endless questions.

There were times when those times took forever and, today, standing alongside my beautiful daughter as she stepped out onto the brink of her adulthood, I wished I had forever. Forever to be with, forever to help create, forever to enjoy the young woman who she was becoming.

Dusty and sunburned after what had been a truly momentous day, my daughter smiled contently at me and my bittersweet awareness of time passing was made a bit more tolerable by the awareness that yet another memory – and perhaps another opportunity to instill the values that I believe in – had just occurred.

For about the one-hundred, millionth time, I found myself quietly thanking God for giving me the awareness of the importance of this time, and for recognizing the absolute value that my involvement, modeling and outward expressions of love have had on co-creating this precious daughter.

Squeezing my hand ever so slightly, my newly appointed 13-year-old hugged me and whispered as she went off to bed, “Thanks mom for a really fantastic day.”

And I found myself whispering back, “No daughter, thank you.”