Lessons Learned

A number of years ago, I attended a music camp in Georgia with quite a vigorous tradition: climbing a mountain. As a woman of a certain age, I was determined to accomplish this challenge, even though I wasn’t in the best of shape. I began to have my doubts as to whether I’d make it to the summit when some of the kids began to pass me on their way back down, but I persevered. I was going to do this if it took every last ounce of strength I had. And finally, I made it! I am a lifetime card-carrying member of the “I climbed Sharptop” club.

 

Reflecting on my experience, I made a number of observations, “Lessons Learned While Climbing Sharptop.” The first was the most obvious: I’m not as young as I used to be, or as I think I am. If I had a quarter for every time I’ve said that in the intervening years, I’d have no need for Social Security.

Other lessons included don’t look back, always keep moving, and plant your feet carefully, even when it looks easy,. Another reminder points to my lack of preparedness for the climb, an unanticipated interuption in a week of teaching music theory to twelve-year-olds. “Wear the right shoes.” Yep.

More than fifteen years later, I’m making a similar list: “Lessons Learned When Moving to a New House.” Yes, we’ve made the plunge, purchasing a new home in Canton, Ohio, selling our beloved home here in Ashland, packing up our belongings, and making the move next week. We’re not totally cutting our ties to Ashland, the community where we’ve spent twelve years as smitten immigrants, but it’s time to move closer to our adult children and to the lovely Madelyn Simone and the delightful, determined Elizabeth Holiday. To my faithful readers, I will continue writing in the Times-Gazette at least through June, still claiming hold to my Saturday morning slot on the editiorial page, so we’ll keep in touch.

In the midst of the  adventures of buying a house, selling a house, cleaning both houses, and updating the new house, I’ve discovered Lesson Number One from Sharptop still holds: I’m not as young as I used to be, or as I think I am. No additional comment needed.

I’m also seeing my adult ADD tendencies in action. Could I possibly pack up one room at a time? No, not me. A box here, a box there, a day filled with “I might as well wipe down this woodwork while I’m wrapping up my mother’s china,” etc. The lesson, still not quite mastered, is to focus on one task at a time.

A third lesson is this: it’s never as easy as it looks on television. When the Property Brothers or Joanna and Chip Gaines renovate a house, they make us believe we can do it too. Beautiful hardwood floors? Just tear up the carpet and voila! However, they didn’t mention the padding that’s been fused to the floor for fifty years and isn’t giving up without a fight. With less than a week til move-in, I’m switching tactics. Finish the perimeter and buy a large area rug. Because as I’ve also learned, when there’s a will, there’s a way.

Here’s another lesson: the prep work matters. Masking tape, well placed, is worth its weight in gold. If you cut corners on the preparation, you’ll pay in the end. Just sayin’ . . .

Whether it’s a bottle of water or a word of encouragement on Sharptop, or heavy lifting or late night painting, we really do need each other in this life. I’m grateful for those who come alongside at every step of the journey. You know who you are.

One last Sharptop lesson: there’s no way down but down. As a novice mountain climber, I hadn’t realized how hard it was to go back down. On a mountain or simply living day to day, sometimes we just gotta do what we gotta do. Because, as I also learned on Sharptop, all we can ultimately do is to take one step at a time.

So what’s on your life lesson list this morning?