Aging
Annah took me away on my birthday for a weekend retreat near Frank Lloyd Wright’s “Falling Water” home in Pennsylvania. The home is everything I had imagined and more. It is proof that residential architecture can be done right if only time and thought are considered (not to mention money).
Journal Entry April 15, 2009
Turning 33 didn’t happen overnight. The day, this birthday, falls on the calendar as most do. There was the cool quiet morning before the sun rose. It’s April. Then the gradual glow. For the individual the birthday is a selfish reflection. A why? A now what?
Thirty-three is a transformational age. Physically the body is changing. Growth has all but stopped. Decline has not quite begun, but it’s patiently waiting. Ideally it’s a midpoint.
It’s a mental marker you arrive at when you begin to think of the world moving forward if you were to cease moving. These thoughts keep you up at night, but you calmly fall back to sleep. Your life is suddenly shifted into perspective. You are surrounded by familiar others but are frighteningly alone. This coming of age gives clairvoyance. Age becomes more familiar. Wrinkles are signs of wear where a smile may have too often worn.
