My kids went back to grammar school today and I am arguably old enough to be a grandmother if I was a naughty or careless twenty year-old. But, I wasn’t, careless, that is! I chose education and freedom to travel around the world instead of a life of family servitude.
Last night at Target during my last minute rush to get school supplies, it was as if I was at Harrods fighting over the last remaining magenta cashmere sweater. If only I had an umbrella to ward off the woman who thought she could wrestle the last box of number two pencils from my grip. I swear!
What does this have to do with aging? Everything. Getting older is about passages strung together with pearls of wisdom. It is like methodically stepping from one paver in a garden to another. Getting school supplies leads to college applications, which leads to graduations, which results in tears of joy and then comes weddings and children in laws and grandchildren and then, the need for my services.
Maybe some people meander and their path goes around and about, but it always ends in getting older, day by day and year by year. You can’t fight that off with an umbrella. But, you can be prepared and takes steps to ensure that you live a carefree, not careless, future.
