Mom... How old are you again?

When you are a kid, birthdays are everything. You recount your age in terms of halves and quarters even. Being eight and a half is a big deal. Being five and three quarters is a big deal. It is a status thing.

As you grow up there are certain milestones you hit that you can hardly wait to reach. Thirteen - FINALLY a teenager. Sixteen - NOW I can drive! Eighteen - Shrug, now I'm legal - I can vote. I suppose some move out or get kicked out. I went off to college and thought I knew it all :) Don't you, after all, know it all when you are eighteen? Then, TWENTY-ONE - the magical legal age for bars and buying alcohol. The age you wish you were ever since you moved out at age eighteen and hussled up a fake ID to say you were.

Then come the dreaded milestones as you get older. I remember twenty-nine. I remember telling people it was my twenty-ninth birthday and they didn't believe me. Yeah, right... twenty-nine. I'm twenty-nine too. Sigh. Thirty came and went. Thirty was a little traumatic but I spent the time recounting all my accomplishments by the time I was thirty and reassured myself that it was ok.

By thirty-five I had twins and life was so moment-to-moment topsy turvy that I didn't know whether I was coming or going between my babies, my older children, my husband, my career, and our move.

So... the years continue to accumulate. Before I know it, I'm thirty-NINE! Good Lord! I'm almost FORTY! Have I lost all that baby fat I needed to lose? I hear it gets harder once you hit FORTY. Have I been wearing sunscreen? I hear those wrinkles really start after FORTY. Have I been getting enough sleep and eating well and and and and and and and.... WHEW!

Before my head explodes, I take a deep breath and enjoy taking pride in all I have and all I am at age thirty-nine. I won't bore you with my long list of blessings. I've recounted them in posts past and still feel that way, with even more to add. But, I will share with you a site I found today that makes you think about your age in terms of days. I love this. Take a minute to read his thoughts. This is the same guy that shared the frightening world clock with us.

As of TODAY, I am 14247 days old! The other ego boost follows in his Life Expectancy - Virtual Age Calculator. You get points added or points taken off depending on various lifestyle choices. I am VERY proud to share with you my results! Hoo!

A few years back I began counting my age not in years, but days.

The day is the natural cycle of our lives. The cycle of light and dark, wakefulness and sleep, has more significance than the cycle of the seasons. Indeed, in equatorial latitudes, you hardly notice the passing of the seasons. The day is what counts.

Each day is a complete unit in itself. At the end of each day I can look back and take stock. How have I been? What have I learned? What can I be grateful for?

I can hold a day's experience in mind quite easily. Trying to go back and take stock of a whole year is much harder. Numerous incidents and discoveries are inevitably forgotten.

I also find it far more meaningful to think that I have lived through nearly twenty thousand days this life, rather than 50 years. And it reframes the future. I have -- probably -- thousands of days still to come. Thousands of new days to discover, enjoy and learn from.

Living Each Day in the Present. It is easy to go through our days on semi-automatic, caught up in doing and thoughts about the past and the future, not experiencing the present moment in its fullness.

~ Peter Russell, "The Spirit of Now"

Thank you Peter Russell. I needed to just slow down a bit and think. This helped me do that. I am so thankful for each day. So much of our lives are spent racing like a hamster on a wheel trying to get somewhere and yet we are still in the same place. Thinking about the gift of a day makes all the difference.