Last month I watched the fascinating documentary, “The Mountains will Wait for You.” www.themountainswillwaitforyou.com. It’s the story of Grace Hudowalski, the matriarch of the “Adirondack 46ers,” a select group of individuals who have successfully summited all 46 high (over 4,000 ft.) peaks of the Adirondack mountains . A lifelong mountain climber (before it was cool!), Hudowalski was the first woman to climb all 46 peaks in 1937, and was a charter member of the Adirondack 46ers, serving as its historian (among other capacities) for sixty years. During her lifetime she nurtured fellow climbers on their quest to join the 46ers by encouraging them to write about their experience. And by encourage, I don’t mean a lot of “Atta girl’s”—I mean she wrote the climbers back. Thousands upon thousands of letters sent to men, women and children all over the world over six decades. In small steps, over a long period of time, Grace made her mark upon the world, so much so that efforts are under way to name one of those 46 mountains “Grace Peak.”
By contrast, the director of the “The Mountains will Wait for You,” Fred Schwoebel, could be nominated for a movie called “Documentary Interrupted.” He first learned about Grace Hudowalski in 1993 and spent time filming her and the other “46-ers” featured in the documentary. After that, however, life got in the way. Schwoebel achieved other goals (including a career as an art director for the television and film industry), but he wasn’t able to finish the Grace Hudowalski project until twenty years later. The important thing is: he finished it. And thanks to him, thousands of people who might never have known about the Adirondacks, much less Grace Hudowalski, now know her inspiring story. In fact, the film has provided a great resource to use in the ongoing quest to grant Grace her posthumous namesake mountain.
As Grace Hudowalski and Fred Schwoebel illustrate, you can make your mark in many different ways; you can start when you’re young and step-by-step achieve something that’s meaningful to you, whether it’s a family, a business, a cause, or whatever. Or, when you’re ready, you can make the decision that “Now is the time.” Fred Schwoebel falls into that category and so do I. I always wanted to write, but other activities (and my own procrastination) took priority. Sure, I can wish I’d been a fiction writer for the past thirty years, but what good would that do me? The fact is, I finally focused on my personal goal, and my historical romance novel, The Art of Love is now out in world, with more to come.
What’s your lifelong goal? If it was to become a prima ballerina of the Bolshoi Ballet and you’re now pushing sixty, that particular achievement might be out of reach. But hey, if health permits, you can still take classes and get better at the form of dance you love so much. It will bring you joy, I guarantee it.
It’s never too late. As Grace Hudowalski might have said, “your achievement will wait for you.” To that I’d add Nike’s brilliant tag line, “Just do it.”
