PDY

So today I was thinking… I tend to do that when I walk. I was thinking about the fact that sometime last week I crossed the two-thirds point of this journey. With that, I also realized that this journey will come to an eventual end, and I don’t particularly want it to, so now, I am just trying to soak it all in and appreciate every second.

I’m in the third third of our walk. I’m also in the third third of my life. Over the years, several witches, psychics and card readers have agreed that I will live until the ripe old age of ninety two, which I take with a grain of salt but am happy believing. That would make each third about thirty years, I’m about sixty, which puts me at the dawn of my last third, and like my walk, I don’t want anything to pass me by unnoticed.

My first two thirds have been pretty well defined. The first thirty years would take a long long walk to fully describe, from my childhood, my tricky teens, incredible twenties. I loved those years, most of them dominated by horses or something related. I trained horses, I bought and sold them, I groomed them, I cared for hundreds of them over the years, and pretty much everything since the age of eleven was about the ponies. My early years were in Mexico City, then seven school years in California, a nomadic year in polo, then back to Mexico. They were years of freedom and independence which back then I thought would never end.

In my second and middle third, I traded veterinarians for pediatricians, hay bales for diapers and horse blankets for little outfits for my three pretty incredible children, no bias whatsoever. It was all about family, and for the most part, I did a pretty good job at launching to the world three very smart, funny and happy young adults. Most of those years were in San Antonio, where we found good friends and a great environment to raise children. My work was no longer outside, went to an office some of those years until I started working in a home office, over 20 years ago. It was a good setup, allowing me to spend more time with the kids when I wasn’t travelling. My work was about as far from a being horseman as you could get, trading barns for hospitals and corporate meeting rooms.

And now… third and last, and I am so looking forward to it evolving into what it may. It has just gotten started, but if the beginning is any indication of the rest, I will be a very happy 92 year old when I move on to wherever we go next. I must say that had I written this five or ten years ago, the narrative would have been very different. I was not looking forward to living in a family sized house devoid of children, and waiting around for them to come over, perhaps eventually with a spouse and children, which would make them my grandchildren and me a grandfather, for which I am not ready. I also was not looking forward to the eventual fading health that accompanies aging. Five years ago, the fading was quite accelerated, but the changes I have made since have slowed the pace way down, and I am healthier now than I was during many years in the second third. Had you asked me then whether I was looking forward to the third third, the answer was a solid no. Today I say, bring it on!

And though I can’t tell you with any certainty what it will be, I know that whatever it is will be nothing short of incredible. Many of the people that have asked me what I’m going to do next think I’m kidding when I say “I don’t know” or “I’m not sure”. But I’m not joking, I really don’t know. I have some ideas, which I’ve been thinking about, but I’m really focusing only on this walk, lest I miss anything along the way. I know what I don’t want to do, and hope to be able to avoid it. I’ll go home to a clean slate upon which I can draw anything I want. I’d love to just keep going, but like some endangered species, this is economically unsustainable for the long term!

I’ll keep you posted, but we’re on a walk right now… focus. Yesterday was a great day of conscious rest. I forced myself not to walk, even though I would have loved to keep going, but my body needed the rest, it asked me for it. And so did my mind. Spent the whole morning doin’ a whole lot of nuthin’, and in the afternoon I rested from all the morning excitement. This morning it was back to Christianburg and 21 miles back to my Salem hotel on an overcast and crisp fall day. Remember Christianburg? No hotel rooms due to Virginia Tech football game? Happy to report the Hokies beat UNC, but it took them six overtime periods to do so. Had they left me hotel room, they probably could have won in regulation time… karma you know :-)

And fortunately, I appears Fall has finally arrived. The colors in the trees are starting to change and it makes for beautiful contrasts, which unfortunately my phone camera doesn’t do justice. The cool air is a very welcome relief from the heat. People continue to be very nice. I can’t ask for anything more.

Reporting from the corner of Peaceful and Main, this is Peter Young.