Having just celebrated a birthday, I have been thinking about milestones. Though it wasn’t a milestone birthday, for some reason this birthday got me thinking - thinking about getting older, thinking about the past, and just generally contemplating the stage of life I am in.  It seems the mirror isn’t as kind as it used to be. I see things in the mirror that I didn’t see in recent years. Until recently, I thought of myself as “young and hip” (though I am quite sure that the true young and hip wouldn’t think of me as either young or hip!).  In the weeks leading up to my birthday, I began to wonder about milestones and thinking a little about the aging process than I usually do.

To celebrate my birthday (and to prove my youth and hip-ness), I went camping and mountain biking with my son. After a few rainy days, I was excited to get on the trails when the sun broke through late Friday afternoon. In my haste to get biking, we took off on the longest trail possible. For some reason, I had thought the ride we were taking was the shortest and I had told my son that.  At every half mile, there was a mile marker indicating the distance we had ridden. After a few rigorous uphill sections, he began asking me to let him know when we got to a mile marker. The further we rode, the more frequently he asked about the mile markers. Finally, I told him that he would enjoy the ride so much more if he worried less about the mile markers. I think that is true about life too.  I think I’ll stop thinking about milestones and start enjoying the journey more.