The Perfect Age

So, another birthday candle is soon to glow! Yipes! There’s a lot more of them than I ever imagine there should be. After all, I must be younger than that!

I guess age has always been a very conscious timeline in our lives. We imagine we’re too young, till we’re somewhat over 21, for anyone to take us seriously. Then we soak up our twenties trying to figure out who we are and what we’re all about, as we stumble along the road to discovery. We’re impulsive and impressionable, idealistic, and vulnerable.

At thirty we feel more confident about taking on the world and so we set about proving ourselves, creating a path of achievements and dreams.  However, we have limited experience with being on the planet, so we make a lot of unwise, if not foolish, choices and before we know it, we’re forty something and doing a U-turn. We weren’t concerned with how to live in the world back when we were protected by family.  Now we jump on to life’s roller coaster and put up our hands and embrace the ride.

At fifty, we are occupied with our accomplishments and success and as our parenting days end, we keep going forward, believing we have a pretty good handle on life.

By sixty, we’re grateful that the kids are through college and hopeful that our modest portfolio will sustain us through retirement. We like the idea of having a little time to ourselves. We’ve been too busy to notice changes in ourselves or the world, so a little quiet time is a welcome thought.

At seventy, we reassess this thing called life and note our gains and losses.  We develop a bucket list. We’re doers and we’d like to accomplish a few more great things before we’re too infirm of mind or body to do anything with ease. We turn our thoughts to legacy and what we might pass along to others.

At eighty, we’re nearly back to where we started. We’ll be enjoying the things we can do and accepting that most people won’t take us too seriously. Ah, those birthday candles…they’ve got stories to tell.

At ninety, if we get to cross that threshold, we hope that God is real. After all, He’s the keeper of the candles.