This week has made me realize what kind of transition my entire family is in.
Can we have a (say it out loud!) BIG T R A N I S I T I O N, Amen.
There is a term now called the sandwich generation. I am SO in it and helping to make it a very special sandwich indeed. I am going to be 60 this coming July, I am raising my grandson who just turned 10, and we just moved my mom, who is 88, into skilled rehab recovering from double pneumonia. I have an aging uncle and other family members in real crisis.
“My life is going to change quicker than I want it to,” kept running through my head.
I had a brother who was killed by a drunk driver when I was 8, he was 11. Transition adjust, recalibrate.
My parents got a divorce when I was a teenager. Transition, adjust, recalibrate.
I had my daughter when I was 18. Transition, adjust, recalibrate.
And on goes the wheel.
Life is constantly changing and evolving.
So I am curious…
Why does aging shock us so much? Me included.
I obviously have lived all of these almost 60 years, so why is it stunning to me that I am going to be 60?
I have watched my mother age. I have gone through the losses of my father and my step-father and yet this week it’s like, WHOA she could die.
I KNOW SHE CAN DIE. I mean I know know it. AND I DON’T KNOW IT.
I realized that my “knowing” in my brain is not the same “knowing in my heart and soul”. (Tweet this!)
I just finished going through my boy’s closet. Four full bags of clothes ready to send out of the house. He is 10 and now wears a 14-16 top and size 7 shoes. Again, the message going through my head was “My Life Is changing. He is growing up SO FAST.”
Really? It’s been 10 years. Same 10 years anyone gets.
I am convinced we put ourselves through a certain kind of denial. A certain kind of numbing to this whole aging process.
It’s not lost on me that I will be 70 when he is 20 and 80 when he is 30. Will I still be alive?
This is the clincher. WE NEVER KNOW…
We never know how long we get.
So I am here to say to you LOUD AND CLEAR (AND PLEASE DO NOT JUST SAY YEAH YEAH AND CLOSE THIS TAB)
How DO you want to live your life? What are you yearning for? Craving?
Is it to go somewhere? Create something? What? What is it? Do you think about going to play with your kids TOMORROW? How about today?
I am NOT trying to be Debbie downer here.
I am trying to give us ALL a wakeup call. We see it. We hear it.
YET DO WE REALLY?
Life can be OVER in a second.
What do YOU want? How do you want to live it? With WHO do you want to live it? Don’t live keep thinking tomorrow I will change that or next year… it may not come.
This message is for ME as much as it is FOR YOU. We live in this human condition together.
LET’S LIVE LIVE LIVE!
And LIVE some more.
What are your thoughts on this? Feelings? What actions will you take? Leave a comment below and let me know.
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