When is it too late?

This question arose once at lunch, when a friend asked me when it was too late to try something new. My reply, “when you dead” startled her. She stared at me while everyone else at the table laughed somewhat nervously. Several years have passed since that conversation, and yet I still believe opportunities are available as long as we are breathing.

At the end of my sixtieth decade, I am still challenging myself in so many ways. I remembered the conversation last week as I stood at the top of an empty Colorado ski run on a blue sky day, joyfully smiling. I pushed off and sang my way down the hill, excited to be physically challenging myself. After a half day on the slopes, I headed home to join in Zoom meetings, for the consulting work I recently accepted as another challenge. I am still studying Hebrew with my 91-year-old friend, and Jewish spiritual wisdom with two different teachers. And of course, perhaps the most amazing “new challenge” in this decade has been falling in love, and committing to a relationship.

Some of my earlier dreams, like hiking the Pacific Crest trail, have been redefined, as simply hiking new trails. My thoughts of spending a winter in an exotic beach location have shifted to trips to Southern California.  And while I never may be a best-selling author, I am writing my fourth book. There is always a new book to read, a new topic to explore, a new person to meet, and a way to turn everyday life into an adventure.

Perhaps this is about approaching each day as a gift, or following one’s instincts, or believing that my desires are spiritual messages my soul is aching to have fulfilled. Because I prefer to be a ‘body in motion’ over a ‘body at rest’ it is easier to keep growing and learning. And the more I challenge myself the more I stay in motion, my energy flowing upward in a lovely spiral.  A flow that only ends when I die…or perhaps not even then.