How could this happen?!

I knew aging was a thing that would happen, I just didn't expect it

to happen to me, specifically

39 and still climbing trees, wearing crop tops and causing ruckus.

But seriously, in so many ways, age IS just a number. I know plenty of old people who did not grow wiser with age, and plenty of young people who think their best years are already behind them.

It's true you probably can't join the circus at 80. . . some ships do sail. . .but. . .

Some of my greatest mentors didn't begin down paths that became their passions until their 40s or 50s. My late friend Lisa started paddle boarding at 48. She did the 31 mile Chattajack river race 5 times. The Maliko run is an off-shore, downwind run of the coast of Maui that scares the sh!t out of me. You're in open ocean, with big swells and once you launch, you're committed for 9 miles because dangerous reefs make it impossible to land until the harbor at the end. She did it a bunch of times on paddle boards and in outrigger canoes.

I look to people like Conrad Anker- a 63 year old mountaineer who is climbing with people half his age and still grabbing first ascents in crazy places like Antarctica.

When I ask people who are still doing what they love in their 60s and 70s, they say

"if you want to do it when you're my age, you just can't ever stop doing it."

This summer as I walked through the woods with a bunch of teenagers, wearing a shorts and a t-shirt, I looked down at myself, and out into the world.

And I realized something. . .

I can only see my legs, my arms, some of my torso and a little bit of my hair, only because it's long.

What I know about my body, I know mostly by feel.

If the mirrors that reflect every single wrinkle and every gray hair in perfect focus didn't exist, I would judge my age by how I feel, and what I could see of myself. ⁣

I've continued to move through the world as if I'm still 28-

because I still feel 28. Still wearing short shorts and crazy outfits, climbing trees and playing hide-and-seek in the woods.

But despite how I feel in my body, and how my body looks to me looking down at it, the mirrors are doing something to me. Having such a precise, constant view of the changes is impacting me. And it shouldn't.

Can I keep it up? Can I resist the pressure of society to act my age as the numbers keep increasing and the wrinkles keep multiplying? Should I?

Could I just stop looking in mirrors?

Does seeing (and treating) the adults around me as the age they act instead of the age they look make them feel different? Does it impact how they move through the world? Or what they feel like they're capable of? Or what they are willing to try?

How old do you feel?

Have you stopped something you loved? Could you start again?

There's this brand I love- it's called 'Go Fast Don't Die' and on of their tag lines is:

"Speed is a number, fast is a feeling."

And it's true- 0-60 in 3 seconds feels way faster than doing 100 on a straight away. Turns out torque is actually more fun than speed.

That got me thinking. Age is a number. And youth isn't really just a feeling.

- Youth is a mindset -

Youth is in the way you choose to move through the world.

What is age anyway? Old is contextual. To the cypress trees in the Black River, I'm a youngin.' To the granite megaliths in Yosemite, I'm just a baby. To the luna moth, I am unbelievably ancient.

What's the difference between a joyful 60 year old and miserable 30 year old?

 Mindset.

Why do some people climb mountains in their 70's and others mope in their recliners complaining about the neighbors?

Mindset.

I believe that we have the power to change the culture we live in- but we have to really BE that change first. We have to embody it.