Sometimes We Just Hike: A Quick Film Showing the Virtues of Simple Family Hiking

I enjoy pushing my limits. I enjoy learning that my body, mind, and emotions can do more than I thought they could do. There is a strong sense of fulfillment that comes with those discoveries. But endlessly seeking the next limit is not a sustainable path. Eventually, I would find that limit, and there would be no guarantees that I’d come out of that situation okay. Frankly, I have too much to live for to ride that close to the edge.

But there are other types of fulfillment. There are other sources of connection beyond the shared struggle. Sometimes, we just need to time to move slowly, not worry about efficiency, not race the darkness or the weather. I will take a day of quiet connection, of languid conversation. I will take a day where the people enhance the landscape rather than the landscape making pronounced demands of us.

Two separate hikes with two separate boys. Two doses of antidote to the stresses of life.