In late December, I went for a hike with my two daughters. My daughters are active and strong. And I thought I was too. But it became pretty1as we went on that while we were all falling and covered with mud, they got up more quickly and kept up with our guide more easily. I was always the slowest and the 2.
They'd wait for me if I got too far back. It 3 me of the first glimpses(模糊的认识）I had of my mom as someone 4than I, like when she started to get out of breath walking across parking lots. It's a slow 5that happens gradually over decades, until one day you are your 6 mother making sure she eats dinner.
When the girls and I finally got to that waterfall, it was indeed shocking:a 40-feet wall of water7down with such fury(狂暴). It didn't look swift, but underneath it was flowing so fast into the small river behind us that you could swim with all your 8 and not get any nearer to the waterfall.
For a while we tried, the three of us 9wildly, to see who could move a foot closer only to be10back into the pack again. Then the youngest of us11 how to navigate the sharp rock walls around the edges where the water was calmest and almost12it to the base of the falls.
We 13up our stuff and set off back home. The girls climbed just ahead of me, talking excitedly about something. At that moment I realized that's what every 14 hopes for the next-that they'll be able to take care of each other without you, and that when you slow down, they'll15each other.
