The Portugues Camino de Santiago

I was speaking to my mom about getting older yesterday, and we decided it isn’t something the young can handle. Only the experienced can do it.

A few weeks ago, my husband and I spent the weekend in Hailey, ID with friends. When we were visiting our favorite spot by the river to soak our feet one night, we noticed a much older woman.

While we could see that she was mature, the way she moved was uncommonly spry. How she navigated her phone to take a video of her family, the way she stood up and down, the exuberance in her voice, and the sureness of her feet on the rocks belied her apparent age.

So my girlfriend said something like, “Excuse me, if you don’t mind me asking… What is your name, and how old are you? Because I think I want to be you when I grow up.”

Betty is 92.

We asked her what her secret was. Betty leveled her gaze at us and quickly answered, “Say ‘yes’ whenever anyone asks you to go on a hike.”

My next hike

I turn fifty in six weeks, and part of my celebration is to walk El Camino with this same friend, one of my prayer partners, Angela. I fly to Portugal on Monday and we’ll start our trek from Porto. Over the course of two weeks, we’ll walk to Santiago, Spain carrying what we need on our backs.

So, while I have had a handful of blog posts started, I’ve been too preoccupied to reign in the thoughts or make them readable. For the next few weeks—if I blog here—it won’t have audio. I’ve been spending my writing time on writing a collection of prayers for us.

If you want to follow us

I will be contributing posts to her blog to keep everyone updated on our location and pictures. You can follow our pilgrimage/adventure on Just Another Trail.

Check her blog out to see the music video we put together. “Hil, you’re growing old so fast.”