Crossing Bridges: What Biking Up the East Coast Taught Me About Life After 60
‚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
At fifty-eight, Lisa Watts felt restless. She had built a carefully balanced life of work and play, but it all seemed to add up to a life of mediocrity. She and a dear friend headed out to bike from Key West to Canada, a trip she’d dreamed of taking for decades. Those two months on the road offered a time of transition, teaching her mostly that she doesn’t have to live as an armchair traveler through life’s third act.
In this engaging travel memoir, Watts shares essays about friendship, marriage, self-doubt, and more. Her aim: to nudge others out the door to go do that thing they’ve always wanted to do.
Inhaltsverzeichnis
PREFACE
This story’s origin story9
ROUTE MAP11
INTRODUCTION
Driveway dreams 13
LESSONS LEARNED
1. Find a good friend for the long haul.21
2. Find a spouse who knows you need to leave home sometimes. 35
3. Buy a sturdy bike and pack lightly.45
4. You don’t have to blaze your own trail..51
5. Stop doubting yourself, trust your strength. .55
6. It’s OK to ask for help..65
7. Just cross the bridge, they aren’t all scary.75
8. Connect the dots by visiting your past 85
9. Let go of ambition as your career wraps up95
10. Reframe how you talk and think about aging. 103
11. Hug your friends. 107
11. Downsize your stuff, or the pannier effect. 111
POSTSCRIPT
Chase your dreams117
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 121
Über den Autor
Lisa A. Watts has worked as a magazine writer and editor and nonprofit communications manager. A child of the East Coast, she grew up in Atlanta, Baltimore, and Boston before marrying and raising kids in Connecticut, Ohio, and North Carolina. Her anthology, Good Roots: Writers Reflect on Growing Up in Ohio (Ohio University Press, 2006), won the 2008 Ohioana Citation Award. She lives with her husband, Bob Malekoff, and their elderly pup, Juno.