Keep Walking

They say you’re over the hill when you turn 50.

I say — I may be over the hill, but from where I’m standing, the view is pretty spectacular.

As I approached my 50th birthday, I remember feeling like I was on the final ascent to the peak of a mountain. And anyone who knows me knows I am very much afraid of heights.

So there I was — exhilarated and terrified all at once.

I was proud of everything I’d built. My education. My career. The two beautiful children God had given me to raise. My family. My friendships. But underneath all of that gratitude was a question I couldn’t quite shake:

Were my best years behind me? Or was there still more ahead?

I wondered if I’d find love again. I had been divorced for ten years. I had learned — truly learned — to be content as a single woman. Alone, but not lonely. Living on my own terms. But I still desired my forever travel companion.

With all of that uncertainty swirling, I did what I always do when I don’t have the answers.

I kept walking.

DIAMOND HEAD — MAY 2021

A milestone birthday deserved a milestone trip. So I chose Hawaii — one of my bucket list destinations — surrounded by family and close friends.

We hiked Diamond Head volcano. It’s not a long trail, but it’s a challenging one — 560 feet of elevation in a short distance. I remember standing at the foot of it, looking up at what I was about to climb, and seeing it as something more than a hike.

It was a picture of the hill I was crossing over in life.

It wasn’t easy. I got tired. I took breaks. But I wasn’t walking alone — I had people beside me, encouraging me, every step of the way.

When I finally reached the top, sweaty and out of breath, the view literally took my breath away all over again. And I felt something shift inside me. A clarity I hadn’t expected.

Turning 50 wasn’t an ending. It was an invitation.

I made a promise to myself on that mountain: keep leaning in. Trust the journey. The blessings ahead are greater than anything you can imagine from where you’re standing now.

Keep walking.

THE GOLDEN GATE — MAY 2022

That promise led me to spend my 51st birthday in Napa Valley. We flew into San Francisco and drove through — crossing the Golden Gate Bridge along the way.

As an engineer, I’d always appreciated the majesty and innovation of that bridge. But crossing it in person was something different entirely. Somewhere in the middle of it, I was overcome with emotion.

It felt like a symbol. Like I was crossing over in life — leaving old fears behind and stepping into something unknown but full of promise.

I didn’t fully know what was waiting on the other side.

I just kept driving.

Keep walking.

GREECE — SEPTEMBER 2022

A few months later, I joined a women’s travel group and spent eight unforgettable days in Greece — Athens, Mykonos, Santorini.

And then something happened that I still can’t fully explain.

While wandering the streets of Athens, a man approached me. Out of nowhere. Like a scene straight out of a movie, he said: “Hakuna Matata, my sister.”

And then he looked at me and said: “You’re going to meet your husband in Texas. In Dallas. Within a year.”

I asked him if someone had told him I was from Texas.

He said no. “I’m prophesying for you.”

I laughed it off. But I kept the thought in the back of my mind.

Keep walking.

SEDONA — NOVEMBER 2022

Two months later, a friend invited me to Scottsdale for Thanksgiving. I said yes — because that’s the promise I’d made to myself. Say yes to new adventures.

When I realized Sedona was close, I asked if we could drive there. It had been on my list.

We toured the energy vortexes, and I was overcome with emotion again. There was this deep sense of letting go. Of leaning into something new. It felt like Sedona had called me there at exactly the right moment.

I left with peace. And a readiness for whatever was coming next.

Keep walking.

MEETING TAJ

What came next was that I did, in fact, meet someone.

His name is Taj. And as only God could arrange — we share the same birthday.

The connection between us was instant. Natural. Familiar. Like he had been walking toward me the whole time.

All I had to do was keep walking.

THE PROPOSAL — MAY 2024

On our shared birthday in 2024, Taj proposed.

I said yes.

We set the date for our birthday — a full-circle moment that only God could have written.

MAY 2025

Within the same week that I became a wife, my daughter welcomed her first child — my first grandchild. A new life. A new legacy. Two of the most sacred roles I will ever hold, arriving in the same breath.

Everything I had questioned standing on that volcano at 50 — the love, the companionship, the legacy, whether my best years were ahead of me — was unfolding in the most beautiful way.

Not because I had all the answers.

Because I had faith. And I kept putting one foot in front of the other, even when I couldn’t see the road ahead.

So the view from here? On this side of the hill?

It’s even better than I imagined.

So friend, whatever you’re climbing right now, whatever hill feels too steep, whatever bridge feels too long, whatever next chapter feels too uncertain —

Don’t stop.

The view from the other side is worth every step.

Keep walking.

— Tanita

Continue the journey → Same Bridge. Different Woman.