The clock is running
On not saving the best for later.
Happy April, Traipser! Dakota here with Traipsing About, my AI-free newsletter exploring living an intentional life while reclaiming creativity as an adult. I spice things up with travel experiences, pictures and daily drawings.
Thank you for being here. I appreciate your time and attention in this waterfall-on-your-head world. Today I’m coming at ya from Capitol Reef National Park, a little oasis tucked into the cliffs of Utah.
In case you missed it: Last time I wrote about our two months in Arizona, including favorite spots along the way.
How Many More Good Years?
Hiking through the hoodoos of Bryce Canyon this week, Chelsea asked me, “What would you do if you knew you only had 10 years left?”
Geez, I was just enjoying the view and she asks that?!
I kid, I kid. As good questions do, it kicked off a long, varied discussion about priorities, bucket lists, and goals.
Soon after, I read the article Your 12 Good Years by a financial planner. It leads off with a punch:
12 good years. That’s how long the average healthy 60-year-old has before their mobility, energy, and independence start to significantly decline.
Not before they die… before life gets noticeably harder. Before they have more time than they have energy.
He breaks things down. Instead of being careful when you retire, GET GOING.
Front-load your retirement. Not your spending, necessarily. But your experiences. Your energy. Your ambition.
The first 10-12 years of retirement should be the richest, fullest, most intentional years of your life. Not the most cautious. Not the most careful. The most alive.
Not that travel is the priority for everyone. Even at home, there's plenty worth pursuing if your bucket list includes things like:
Actively volunteering or running for public office.
Planting a monster garden.
Training for a marathon or finally nailing that hard yoga pose.
Learning a language or how to play an instrument.
Mentoring younger people or teaching at a local college.
That’s just a quick brainstorm. Lots of ways to contribute, learn, explore and live!
We’re not 60 yet
All this still applies even for me and Chelsea in our 40s. Time and energy are precious. A lifetime of activity shows up in a sore back here, a tweaked hip there. Maybe I hit a few too many rock drops on my mountain bike in my 30s?
I’m also reminded constantly that life is fickle and there are no guarantees about any amount of years at any age. Curveballs have hit us, friends, parents. Is this just life past 40?
All this motivated us to jump into this mid-life break. It felt like an imperative, like we’d be messing up not to shake things up and hit the road.
As the brilliant writer Brenda Ueland says in If You Want to Write,
“The foolishness of all this living in the future! Like working very hard at something dull all your life so you can retire on plenty of money at eighty.”
Sure, mayyybe we run out of money later. However:
I know I’m going to die someday. 100% chance. (Don’t believe the live-forever tech bros.)
BUT
In the less-than-100% chance finances get tight later in life, we can live simply on very little and be quite happy. It feels like a super power to know finances don’t dictate our happiness beyond the basics of survival.
Given that, I’m going to enjoy this mid-life hiatus to the max so that I’m not kicking myself later in life thinking, “why didn’t I go do ______?”
Our next decade
Which brings us back to the hoodoos and our next ten years.
I briefly pondered Chelsea’s question, but the answers bubbled out easily. Time together. Travel. Exploring beautiful nature on foot and by bike. Writing. Mentoring. Studying piano, languages, and art while reading a ton. Spending time with family and friends. Staying physically strong and fit.
Above all, the time flexibility to feel unrushed and able to dive into whatever passion or project appeals to me.
Never too late
If you’re over 60, time isn’t up yet!
My 73-year-old mom just kicked off a major adventure by flying to Rome last week. She hasn’t traveled overseas for 50 years, but will spend the next YEAR in Italy and other European countries, a month here, a month there.
Intimidating idea? Oh yeah. Awesome adventure in one’s 70s? HELL yeah. Her friends are astonished. I’m so proud of her for making it happen.
Seize the years. Go go GO! We’re never too old, but the sooner we launch into the adventures of a lifetime that we’ve always dreamed of, home or away, the better.
Traipsing Tidbits
So good: Retirement Plan, an Oscar-nominated 7-minute film.
You don’t need to document everything.
Definitely send this hilarious video to a bird watcher in your life.
Traipsing About is motoring onward from the Utah national parks (for now). But first, a quote for the road…
“One day you will wake up and there won’t be any more time to do the things you’ve always wanted. Do it now.”
— Paulo Coelho
Onward,
Dakota
P.S. Wow, this amazing drawing goes on and on (and in and out). Thanks Jesse!
Love those views! I have a deep love for the desert. Regular dreaming, self check-ins and planning feel like the way to stay awake and thriving in our adult years. Good job asking the questions Chelsea :) I'm beginning to dream and plan for another adventure after selling this acreage next year. It was a labor of love renovating the house, planting huge flower gardens with a dear friend, planting a few small veggie gardens, planting an 8-acre reconstructed oak savannah, and adopting 3 cats. I have decided art needs to be included in my years going forward and I've started dyeing fabric again. It's time to put my fancy degree from Denmark to use! https://www.instagram.com/colorlitstudio
Thanks for sharing. I enjoy staying in touch. And hey! let me know if you want to do a video chat sometime. hugs to you both.
A movie recommendation when you're ready to think deeply about mortality. Come See Me in the Good Light about the Poet Laureate of Colorado Andrea Gibson and her journey with cancer.
And another recommendation: Perfect Days a delicious movie set in Tokyo about a simple and joyful life.
The idea of not letting finances dictate your life by learning to live simply is something I have tried to focus on especially over the last few months. It is so empowering but also antithetical to how I was raised and what I have long known. But it is startling when I realize what feels possible when I have control of my time regardless of the amount of money I’m working with.