Thinking Back 10 years

I've been thinking this week of how I hiked up Tumbledown Mountain in Maine 10 years ago on August 24, and how much that meant to me.  I am not going to repeat the story - you can read it in the link above if you are interested.  The photo shows the three of us from my group that went on to the top.  You can see the lake well behind us, and one of the summits in the distance beyond the lake.

It's great to be healthy, 11 years after cancer, and 10 years after struggling a bit to make this hike about eight months after wrapping up chemotherapy.  I hope to keep going strong, but know very well that life holds no guarantees.  So it is important to be grateful for what you have, and to live each day to the extent you can that day - given the responsibilities that each of us have.

A return to Tumbledown Mountain is on my "bucket list."  It is amazing how fast time goes by, though, so I guess I'd better find a way to make that happen.  The 10 years since I went there to hike up the mountain and to celebrate our friend's big 5-0 have gone by in a blur.  Now, my friend just turned 60 and we couldn't make it this time - just not enough vacation time with the trips to California and Michigan.  The mountain is still there, waiting, and will be there longer than my time on the earth.  I just need to find time to get back, and make sure that I am strong and healthy enough to repeat the hike to the top, with cancer so far in the past that I can barely remember it any more.