Exhilaration and Adventure = Sisterhood for Life

Thursday Thoughts, Thursday Vibes, Middle Aged Women, Women Entrepreneurs, Female Athletes

 The lush greenery abounds in all directions as the historic clear waterway rippled to our right. The sometimes paved, and other times gravel-dirt, path lay under our feet for both smooth and bumpy enjoyment. June in Upstate New York is as close as you get to Christmas morning when pure joy erupts. Glorious, is the word I use for June after living in Central New York all my life. It’s as if heaven is reachable.

White fluffs from the Cottonwood trees peppered the air as 30 miles of the bike journey went by in a blink of an eye. To my left was a 72-year-old woman Amelia (Amy) Nigro, I only met once at a past event, who invited me to join her on her annual birthday ride on the Erie Canal. After surviving a brain tumor, her zest for living multiplied and this annual celebration of her life became a ritual.

After posting my intention to try every sport once in my life, she invited me to bike alongside her – a true honor. Routinely I bike 9-12 miles a day but 30 miles was a new feat, to which I immediately agreed to do. The secret about riding long distance in my mind, is the joy of doing it with someone else.

Many years ago, my cousin and his wife biked from Maine to Key West – a much longer trek than the Erie Canal – but they broke it up stopping once in awhile to visit relatives, hang their heads for a night, only to get up at dawn and do it again. I’m not sure my ride today would qualify me for that journey, but I can see where just one longer test of strength makes you believe you can do another one.

I can attest to the fact one of the best ways to make new friends, especially if you are a middle-aged woman, is to do something physical together because the endorphins, laughter, sharing, talking, and traversing has a unique bonding quality about it. I have been bringing women to white water rafting, ziplining, charity running events, and even swinging on the flying trapeze for ten years. Exhilaration and adventure equals sisterhood for life.

So today I hope you are inspired to invite another woman to join you on a physical adventure or invite me to go with you, and see the strong bonds you make. And if you’ve done a commendable job, you might just get a treat like a homemade chocolate chip muffin, like I did from Amelia, for coming along for the ride, as she continues to pedaling to Saratoga. What’s better than that, I say? Only Christmas morning.