From 0 – 61

Yesterday was my 61st birthday and as you can imagine I was (as usual) somewhat reflective and a bit melancholy.  (It didn’t help that I have the world’s worst head cold and was feeling terribly sorry for myself! …but never mind.)

The obvious and not so profound questions hit me around mid day;  “Where has the time gone?”  “Where has my life gone?” “When did I become my Mother?”  

When I was a kid I was constantly saying stuff like, “I can’t wait for summer,” or  “I wish Christmas would hurry up and get here.”   My Dad would always respond by saying “Don’t wish your life away!”  Shortly followed by…   “Time passes more quickly as you get older!” 

What a ridiculous thing to say,  “Time passes more quickly…!”   Time is time.  Yes, it passes, but it does not pass more or less quickly based on your age!  “Silly old man!” I’d think to myself.

However, as he was about many things, I have come to realize that my Father was also right about time!  It does indeed pass more quickly, in direct correlation to my age!

All I can figure out is that as we age, we get unknowingly pulled more deeply into this weird, invisible time warp thingy, where the actual value, of lengths of time, has been recalculated and made shorter!  So a year is no longer a year (as we once perceived it).  A year is now about 3 months.  A decade, which seemed like a considerably long period of time, when we were young, has been recalculated to feel like about 3 years!

Don’t get me wrong…  I’m ok with getting older.  I love the feeling of freedom and independence, I have now.   I throughly enjoy my “devil may care” attitude and find that I am much more loving and accepting myself as each year (3 months!) passes!  I care more about what’s going on inside me than what I look like on the outside and am much less concerned about trivial things. Getting older rocks…  I just want the whole time thing to SLOW DOWN!

Let me enjoy being 61. I want to try it on, check it out, get used to it.  You know, breath it in and savor the way it feels… before having 62 shoved down my throat!

I’m actually looking forward to becoming 65, 70, 75 and maybe even 80! Who know?  I’d really like to get there, but I want to experience  it!  Experience it like the slow, leisurely movements of a country fair, ferris wheel, or one of those Swan Boats on a lake.  Not experience it like the nauseating, fast moving, spinning of a carnival Tilt-A-Whirl!

Nope…. not this year!  This year I am dedicated to slowing things down.  I will make a day last a whole day. A week will be a week. The Time Grinch is not stealing away any more of my precious time!

I will be 61 for another 364 more days or 8736 hours or 524,160 minutes.

My goal is to be grateful for and appreciate….  every single second.