Ageing And Acceptance

Time can be a thief if we let it be.

I am coming up on another birthday.

Soon my 60s will be in my rear view mirror

in our 60's, we start to worry a little less about being perfect, and realizing that what is really important doesn't get lines and wrinkles.

Why, oh why, as we live our lives do we waste time worrying about God knows what and caring more about silly things than the things that really matter? It's a rhetorical question, of course, because I am sure someone, somewhere along the line, told me to stop and smell the roses, or to savor each day, each moment as if it were my last. I am sure that I read that life is meant to be lived in the moment,not in the past nor in the future.

I was never one to waste time. I was always a go getter and a doer. Which, now that I look back, meant that I was also an over-achiever. And as such, I never took time to live for the day but always rushing toward the next day. As a mother, I know that I taught my children to be the same way. Not obviously, no. But by example. For they saw my determination to get it done, hurry up, move on to the next task.

Oh yes, As the song says. Regrets, I've had a few.

But now as my 69th birthday approaches, I have less of a need to push myself. Maybe I'm just naturally tired and ageing. Or maybe I have finally realized that what is important really has little to do with the things we accomplish or how much money we made.

What matters now is the belly laughs of my sweet granddaughter (the one we thought we would never have) on Instagram stories. What matters now is the 17 year old grandson who will be graduating high school in a few, short months and who is getting acceptance letters and scholarships from great schools. What matters now is that I have a wonderful family, wonderful friends and the knowledge that while I wasted a lot of my life, I managed to somehow store up a lot of wisdom as well.

Life gets mighty precious when there's less of it to waste...