Little things

I’m continually amazed by the wise things my children say. Over the years, a few phrases in particular have stuck with me. One that I keep returning to was uttered by my elder daughter about two years ago. As a belated birthday present, I had taken her for an extended weekend trip with just the two of us to Sausalito, California. She had chosen the location indirectly, stipulating that she wanted to go hiking, eat burritos, and not get jet lag. On our second day, we embarked on a day-long hike through the Golden Gate Reserve. As always, she was a trooper. We covered 7.6 miles that day with 1,713 feet of elevation gain in just under four hours.

As we reached the top of the last hill on the way back, we paused to take in the view and sip some water. I asked her if the climb was hard for her. She looked over at me and said,

If it isn’t hard, then you don’t get stronger. And you need to get stronger so you can do more fun stuff.

As I move through this season of my life, on this journey I never expected to be on, I think a lot about her words. Right now, this is hard, but I will get stronger. And, when I am stronger, I will be able to do more fun stuff.