THE BIRTHDAY HIKES -3

YEAR TWO

 

Today’s Hike:                     4 miles
Total Miles:                        21.1 miles

THE TABLES HAVE BEEN TURNED!

I was out doing my Silly Mountain hike today when I met a young family coming towards me; mom, dad, a girl, a boy, ages 9 – 10, and one dog.  As I passed I was looking at the girl and her dog, and when I looked up the mom was taking a picture of me.  Now that’s a first.  I am usually the one taking the pictures.  I stopped and talked for a while and it turns out that she wanted a picture of some old geezer hiking the trails so she could send it back to her old geezer parents in Michigan to see if it would shame them in hiking also.

As we talked she told me that she sure did miss her mother.  She was up in heaven now, she told me.  Mine too, I replied.  Perhaps they were conspiring together up there to make this meeting happen.

   

Synergy, that’s what they call it; synergy.

I used to do a lot of bicycle riding.  During the week I would ride to and from work, a distance of 20 miles each way.  Weekends I would often go on 100 mile “century” bike rides.  Come summer time we would take a day off from work and ride 120 miles around Mt. Rainier.  Then there was the STP, Seattle to Portland bike ride, 200 miles in one day, but it was always with my biking group.  To keep up the speed and endurance we would “draft” off of each other.  Drafting is when you are riding in a line of seven or so bikers and you stick right within 2 – 5 inches of the rear wheel of the rider in front of you.  The lead rider stays in the lead breaking the wind for just for a few strokes of the pedals and then he peels off and joins back in at the end of the line.  Except for that short time you are in the lead you are always drafting along behind someone else.  This way you can easily maintain speeds of 20 to 25 miles for long periods of time.

A support team can also be anyone who is interested in what you are doing or helping you in some way.  When I’m riding or hiking alone I often think of accomplishments others have made.  Take my good friend Denise White.  For the last two years Denise has participated in the Susan G Komen 3 Day Walk, in which she walks 20 miles each day for three days. Now that is admirable.  Just thinking how someone could do that gives me the extra determination to complete even my 2.1 mile hike each day. I mean what’s so hard about 2.1 miles, day after day after day after day?

When my grandson Jonathan Dippold was on his mission in Edinburgh, Scotland for the LDS Church, we would often receive email letters he would write to the family telling us about the progress he was making on his mission.  We supported Jonathan’s decision to go on a mission and wanted to see him succeed.  At the time my wife Sharon and I were on a ward mission for the church here in Arizona.  When Jonathan would write us and tell how hard it was to go out knocking on doors to find people to spread the gospel to, Sharon and I would go out and visit some of the less active members in our area.  When Jonathan would write and tell us that his district would be going through the temple, Sharon and I made sure that we would be going through the Mesa temple on the same day.  When Jonathan baptized one of his investigators Sharon and I were blessed to be able to baptize one of our investigators around the same time.

In one of Jonathan’s letters home he said “I know that you are all wonderful missionaries.  The full time missionaries must love you.  You are missionaries in your great example in the way you live.  We have a very good family.  I still proudly have the photos of the two baptisms from Gma and Gpa Hyde of the couple the sisters were teaching.  That is such an important thing”.

Two inches away or around the world.  We can gain strength, endurance, and determination from someone else we love or respect.  

Synergy; that’s what we call it, synergy.