On Turning 37

I was born roughly 1,924 weeks ago. That number is only slightly more arbitrary than the corresponding number of years: thirty seven.Age is strange. On the inside, I feel about twenty one. From the outside, it might seem like I am eightysomething, based on my much-cherished, early-to-bed, early-to-rise lifestyle. Nonetheless, I am barreling towards forty. How can this be possible? Am I middle aged?I clearly remember my dad's 39th birthday, September 30, 1991. Our family gathered in the kitchen to sing to him and eat the German chocolate cake my mom had made. I was eleven years old and suddenly overcome with nostalgia and concern for my dad's advancing age. I was jolted by the revelation that my dad would one day die, and so would I, and so would we all. According to my childish logic, age 39 sounded alarmingly close to "old."On Tuesday, I turn 37. My parents are 64. Dude, it's 2017. In the future, it will be the year 2049. What do any of these digits mean? What's in a year? Isn't time ultimately this moment, whatever is happening in the stream of consciousness of the present moment? Time marches on, yet life feels timeless, at times.My husband teases that I'm a child of the eighties, while he belongs to the far-superior decade of the seventies. (Mind you, he was born in the summer of '79.) I appreciate that the eighties were low-tech. I am grateful that social media did not exist until I was in college. I reminisce about the time before selfie sticks, smartphones and multitasking reigned all over the land. I am appalled to think about how much TV I watched as a kid and teen. I haven't had a television since circa 2006.I've done a lot of thinking over the past few years about learning and unlearning. The lesson I am currently unlearning, which I thought I had already but am realizing through my own experience as a mother to my daughter, is that "You have to be nice." Be a good girl, try a little harder, and all that. Study hard. Work hard. Play hard.Nowadays, I am more into softness.I catch myself telling my girl, "Be nice." Or urging her to hug someone or give a high-five or say something for goodness sakes'. She is currently speaking nonstop, all day every day at home, and when we go out of the house, she's virtually silent around anyone she doesn't know well. And that's okay. I am practicing letting her be. Letting her do as she will, as she wishes, as long as it's with kindness, respect and lovingness. Being softer and gentler with her, reasoning with her in a calm way, when she is not being so kind, loving or respectful.So I'm unlearning "be nice" as a social construct, while ever reminding myself: be nice, as in: practice kindness, to all beings without exception.Another day older, another day of precious life, another day closer to cheerful death.I am thirtysomething. I've learned a lot since I was twentysomething. Have I grown, evolved, matured, become more grounded and well balanced, in general, a little bit? Have I gained wisdom? Maybe. Experience? Definitely. Most of all: self-knowledge. Understanding of my own mind, body and heart---as well as recalling, always, the essence of being and intending to flow with the energy of life.Viva la vida!