Astray

Been astray. Rearing kids. Raising a new batch of chicks to replace the hens we lost over the past year, plus five ducklings just for fun. Getting all my spring seedlings into the garden and weeded, keeping an eye on this year's resident birds in our birdhouses. Spending time with my husband and keeping our relationship alive and happy. Cooking, cleaning. Life.

I turned 35 this spring. Turning this particular age has been a doozy. Twenty-seven was a big one for me, too: leaving my early 20's and approaching 30 without a partner, without a career, without having traveled as much as I'd always thought I would have by that age. But where 27 was mostly about taking stock of what I'd accomplished so far in this life, 35 has got me taking a good look at exactly how far into this life I've already come. I'm accustomed to thinking of myself as "a young person," and now, 35 staring me straight in the face, I'm realizing that that's just not true anymore. I'm not a young person. I'm as old as the folks I used to babysit for when I was "a young person."

It's calling for a shift in my concept of myself, and at the same time is forcing me to reconcile with my mortality. I'm no longer in the start of this life, I may be halfway through it already!