I got my kicks at 36...

Tomorrow morning, at 6:40am, another year of my life will be over and a new personal trip around the sun will begin.  Today, as I have gone about my routine of work and meetings and lunch and more meetings and yoga and school team conference calls, I will occasionally remind myself that today is my last day as a 36 year old.  Tonight, in yoga class, my teacher came over to assist me getting into a headstand and when she asked if I wanted to go up, I told her yes, of course; that I had to get one more in before I found myself another year older.  It feels a little weird to really think about the end of a year; surreal to realize that never, ever again while I am on this planet in this life will I be 36. And that actually, 36 years ago, on September 20th, I had not yet even breathed a breath of air on this fine planet.

As I was thinking today about writing this blog post I knew that I would surely devote some sentences to how incredibly fast 36 flew by.  Oh, I know.  All the years always go fast and they continue to move faster and it's all over in a blink, a flash, a speck of time.  I understand this phenomenon a bit more each year as I find they all move quicker than the previous ones.  Or perhaps understand is too kind a word.  I don't exactly understand it; I have simply come to know that certain things, like time moving too fast and days passing quickly seem to be a certainty.  If I didn't understand the calendar system, the one that swears it was 364 days ago that I celebrated my last birthday, I certainly wouldn't believe it was an entire year ago I was off celebrating with friends versus just a few weeks ago (which is what it feels like in my head).

So while I am in the camp of thinking that if time is flying it means one is busy doing good and great and interesting things, I find the downside is there isn't necessarily a lot of time for pause and reflection.  One of the things I work at quite a bit is being present and in the moment, of soaking in what is now versus fretting over the past or worrying about the future.  (Key words = work at quite a bit.  This is no easy task.)

Still, here I sit on my relatively new grey sofa in my apartment, in a tank top and comfy shorts, with my sweet little black Sophia cat curled up next to me, and the windows open, thinking a bit about my 36th year.  And what I take away from it, from the whirlwind it was, is how much I have laughed, how much I have learned, how much I have loved, how much I have leapt, how much I have lived in this past year.  You'll do 36.  You will do.