From Suburban Mom to Pro Hiker: It’s Never Too Late to Discover Your Gift

That may seem an unusual age to pick a career. But for the first 18 years of my adult life, I had been a committed stay-at-home mom. When my first daughter was born, I had put aside my degree in business and computer programming. From then on, I dedicated my life to taking care of my baby full-time. I was going to be the best mother ever (or so I believed as a first-time mom with only one baby to take care of!).

Years passed, more babies were born, and I must admit, I did become proficient in the art of parenting. Over time, I learned how to play with my kids and have great conversations with them. I went from barely knowing how to make an omelet to serving healthy dinners every evening. And I figured out ways to push away the self-doubt, the feelings of inadequacy that occasionally plagued me.

As a teenager, I had been an overachiever and a top student. Now, my peers were the ones with status and prestige: one was a top marketing exec, another an accomplished writer. My best friend from high school had gone on to help create BuzzFeed and form a band that played on the David Letterman Show. There were nurses, professors, and family lawyers in my community, all helping other people in a way I could only dream of.

I was, on the other hand, really good at planning out summer vacations with my family. Carpools were my jam, and I could execute a mean newborn swaddle. For eighteen years, there had been a wonderful series of babies and toddlers to take care of.

What was I going to do now?  And how could I ever hope to catch up?

The Answer to the Big Question

I never expected I’d decide to create a blog. Blog writing hardly seemed to be a viable (or prudent) career path. But by December time of that year, I was deep into my new fascination and pastime: creator of Hiking the Holyland, a blog dedicated

to providing clear and useful Israel hiking information in English.

To create the site, I had followed some simple online tutorials and slapped together a design. Then, my husband and I began taking weekly hikes, armed with an iPhone and my son’s Canon camera for documentation purposes.  After we hiked, I would go home and write about the experience. My husband helped me design maps and navigational features which would help readers find their way on the trails. 

To be completely honest, this “career path” wasn’t totally out of left field for me. In my long journey on the couch, I had decided that what I really wanted was to write. After considering becoming a doctor, a midwife, an interior designer, a singer, or a Yoetzet Halacha, being a writer had emerged as the clear winner.  

Everyone has their own unique gifts. For me, writing was something which had escorted me through the good and the bad parts of life again and again. I loved language and the written word.  And I felt that, just maybe, writing could be a great way to give back to the world.

There were so many options out there.  Should I study journalism? Write a book? Apply for a job as a content writer? Or something else? As I considered this confusing muddle, a slow epiphany occurred. 

Our family loved to travel. That summer, we had gone on a month-long trip to Scotland.  On the trip, we hiked day after day, preferring exploring the outdoors to most other activities. The whole time, we used a wonderful hiking website to help us find our way on the trails. 

On previous trips to other places, we hadn’t been so successful. Years earlier in Italy, I remembered trying to decipher hiking instructions in Italian and getting totally lost. In the United States it was easier. There, we used blog posts to guide us through a trip from San Francisco to Sedona. 

As we journeyed, I discovered a surprising truth: Israel was far more beautiful than I had ever imagined it to be. Throughout our 15 years since making Aliyah, we had mostly hiked in the summertime, when the kids had vacation. I was familiar with the parched landscape of the dry season and the oppressive summer heat. We had no idea that in the wintertime, the National Parks and nature reserves in Israel turn green and lush.

It wasn’t just the lush greenery of the rainy season that made an impression. We discovered the majesty of the desert, the silence. Growing up, I had always imagined the desert to be a sterile and monotonous environment, one of rolling sand dunes and little life. As it turned out, deserts in Israel were anything but boring.

The Wild Side of Suburban Motherhood

Truth be told, this new path helped me rediscover my own adventurous side too. As we hiked, I learned that I could be strong and powerful, words I hadn’t really associated with myself as a religious mother of 6. This newfound strength was useful for climbing up rocks, carrying heavy backpacks, and tackling lengthy trails.

Switching gears mid-life had other benefits. For much of my adult life, I had suffered from a condition known as SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder). It had tormented me through the winter months. Every winter, I huddled inside away from the cold and fog that descended upon my mountaintop town. Now, as we hiked through the cold season, I enjoyed the positive effects of daily sunshine and fresh air. SAD was gone.

Even on rainy days we went out hiking. Armed with a light rain jacket and waterproof boots, the weather didn’t bother us anymore. On the contrary, we enjoyed the feeling of cool drizzle on our faces as we exerted ourselves physically. And encountering the deep beauty of the green and flower-filled land under a gray sky touched my soul.

This new life was most decidedly different from life as a full-time stay-at-home mom. I met new people regularly: on the trail, on group hikes, and through new connections formed with my growing pool of readers.  

Perhaps the most wonderful bonus feature of this mid-life change was meeting so many new and interesting people. Little by little, word got out about Hiking the Holyland.  English speaking locals reached out to me, relating how the website had changed their lives.

People from all over the world were discovering a new side of Israel, one that they had never known existed. I couldn’t believe that I was actually having an impact.

Seeing these results caused me to throw myself into the work with a fiery passion, to turn Hiking the Holyland from a hobby blog into a business. I could see that I was helping people. My readers were falling more deeply in love with the Land they lived in.  My audience was integrating the powerful healing effects of nature into their lives. Some of them were looking at Israel in a new way, developing a connection to the Land that they hadn’t had before.   

Eventually, my son’s old Canon was replaced by a new professional camera, carefully chosen for its lightweight frame and other hike-friendly features. I hired a graphic designer to help me design a logo and implement a new look on my site. We developed more sophisticated maps and added new navigational features for easier hiking.  Inspirational articles and expert guest posts took their place on the site, along with eBooks and a photo store. Finally, about a year ago, I turned a home office into my headquarters and cleared out of the playroom, bidding farewell to the battered denim couch.

This was a huge milestone for me. I had never worked in an office before. On my freshly painted walls, I hung a giant map of Israel along with some of my favorite photos from the trail. Quotes from Rav Kook and some of my reader