Another year has passed, and I’ve reached a new milestone in age. It’s strange how quickly the years have piled up but I’m grateful to have lived each one. The good moments and bad, along with all the ups and downs have helped to make me who I am. I’m hopeful that I’ve changed for the better but only those who know me well know for sure.
I got a kick out of a conversation I had with a few friends the other evening and it had me smiling for a few days and thinking about how much my conversations have changed with age. At some point in life, I went from talking about the fun things I was planning to do, to important subjects like traffic, weather, and aches and pains. Gone are the wild antics of yesterday replaced with often random thoughts pulled from who knows where and inserted at the oddest moments into the middle of another conversation entirely that leave me wondering about myself.
I love it when someone asks me what are my plans are for the weekend? A question which is often followed by a lengthy pause by me as if I might be planning a bit of mountain climbing, bungy jumping, or clubbing with friends when in truth I know I’ll be doing something less intense like reading or writing perhaps. But here’s the deal, even though I’m getting older, my face may look like a road map to the casual observer, and I sport a few bumps and scars seen and unseen, I’m still alive.
I try to stay active. I ride my bike around 10 miles three days a week and do aerobics on a rebounder the other two. Yeah, I know the bike is stationary, but I can’t hurt myself too badly if I fall off and I don’t have to wear a helmet or fight traffic. You see that word has made its way into the conversation again
I have often rushed through life like it’s a race. But life is not a sprint, it’s a journey not always understood, but something to be savored. Yesterday is history and already a part of my story. Tomorrow is a mystery, yet to be written. It is today, at this very moment that I hold in my hand. It unfolds minute by minute and hour by hour, no matter what my plans.
I’m thrilled to have reached my age. Not everyone gets to. I’ve enjoyed watching my sons grow and build lives for themselves. It’s wonderful to watch their children too. The days fly by, the months roll on, and before I can blink my eyes another year will be gone. I want to enjoy as much as I can and be grateful for the few lovely surprises that life dished out along the way.
Each one of us
has lived through
some devastation,
some loneliness,
some weather super-storm,
When we look at each other
we must say, “I understand”.
I understand how you feel
because I have been there myself.
~*~ Maya Angelou ~*
