Present Time

On Saturday morning, I finally took down the Christmas cards that had amassed around my kitchen door frame throughout the holiday season.  While my tree had long been removed I had yet to actually put away the Rubbermaid containers that house the ornaments, lights, and various sundry holiday decorations I've collected; that pile of holiday cheer had been sitting on my living room floor for over a month before I finally pulled out the ladder and stuffed it all up into the top of my closet for the next eleven months.

Closet filled to the brim with decorations once more, I surveyed my living room and decided it was time for the Happy New Year banner to come down as well.  While the good cheer and welcoming spirit for 2014 remains, I imagine the year has gotten the point having seen my homemade banner hanging across my window for 30+ days.

I realize that time moving too fast is a theme for all of us; the days fly past in a blink but oh, I would sometimes like the minutes to slow themselves ever so briefly so that we may all take stock and perhaps catch our collective breath before moving forward.

Hey, Father Time.  Could we collaborate on that or something?

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Earlier in January, a good friend of mine turned 39.  When I wished him a Happy Birthday, he thanked me and then made a quick comment about how he planned to be turning 39 for many years out.  "40 just seems so...well, 40." he explained.
Quick to offer an antidote, I replied, reminding him that everyone says that forty is the new thirty.

"I know, I know," he said.  "But I just like my 30's so much...it's hard to see them come to an end."

And I know what he means of course.  Some times, often times, I take a moment to reflect upon just how much I adore my thirties and what a wonderful, marvelous decade it has been so far, and I realize that I may be living the very best moments right now, in this present.  Of course every decade has its charms and enchantments...and I certainly don't think when one turns forty and fifty and beyond everything is over.  It's just that sometimes I catch myself and think, in a swell of gratitude, how this decade might just be perfectly perfect.

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I have been battling a cold for just about a week now.  What started with a sore throat and cough has moved its way up into my sinuses, leaving me walking around as an open mouth breather and my head in a constant stuffy nosed fog.  While I did my very best to lay low this weekend, knowing my body needed to recover, I couldn't completely stop myself from keeping some plans.  I still met some dear friends for dinner on Friday night, I hoofed it to yoga on Saturday with the hopes that some exercise would make me feel better.  I met a friend at the movies on Saturday afternoon; on Sunday I even drove myself to the grocery store to stock up for the coming week.  So...not exactly laying low after all I guess. (Although I did pass on an invite to watch the Super Bowl with some friends at their house.)  I have come to realize that I'm not very good at just sitting still for long periods of time.  Being a couch potato - even one that is exhausted, sniffling, and sneezing, is alluring for the first hour or two...and then I just want to be more active.  I can't help it.  I suppose someone who didn't know me very well could dismiss it as a nervous energy but I don't actually think that's it.  I think, there's a place tucked away in my head and in my heart that just wants to somehow be able to do it and see it all.  And we all know you don't often see or experience very much of life on a couch.

Who knows?  Maybe by the time I turn forty myself, I'll reflect on my thirties the same way that I currently do my twenties - a great decade, one I was so happy and grateful to explore and enjoy...and one I also rarely miss.  I'm just as content to have been there once as I am to not move backwards.

All I know is this.  Even now, right this moment, nose dripping like a faucet and all, I am beyond content to be exactly here.  Right where I belong. 

Even if it does take me until February to put away my Christmas decorations.