Aging with Grace

I’m awfully interested in how big things begin. You know how it is; you’re twenty-one or twenty-two and you make some decisions…then whissh! you’re seventy. You’re a lawyer for fifty years and that white-haired lady by your side has eaten over 50,000 meals with you. How do such things begin?

Thornton Wilder, Our Town

Today is, officially , the first day of autumn. It’s a short lived season. It has always seemed to me that once Halloween arrives, the year is gone. One moment we’re carving jack o’ lanterns, the next we are taking down the Christmas tree and I couldn’t tell you how we got there.

I suppose time becomes more important as we become older. I recently heard someone say, “You do know they’ll be back tomorrow?” The reply was, “But, it will never be today again.” No, it will never be today again. Only memories are left of that time.

I have always been amazed by those people who remember random things from years ago. It is not a skill I have ever possessed. Of course, I remember the big moments in my life, sadly much of the rest has sailed by in a blur. Now that the time is long past, I wish I had paid more attention.

About a year ago, I became more serious about writing every morning. Not as much a journal as random thoughts about what is happening in the moment. I have attempted, through the years, to keep a diary. Sadly, after a few months, the entries become fewer and fewer until one day they stop completely. I am doing better this time and have written a couple of hundred pages. I would like to look back and read what I has thinking five years ago on this date. I wonder if I will think what seemed important at the time, now sounds silly.