For the preceding three hundred and sixty five days
I’d been standing on that decade marker.
An even number,
divisible by ten
with a zero in the ones place.
The zero in the ones place is essential.
Essential to the emotional clinging, the avoidance of embracing an additional decade of age. As long as the zero was there (I thought to myself) I had not actually stepped off INTO the next decade. I could still glance over my shoulder and feel only a bit removed from the younger decade that I had just lived beyond. The younger decade suggested a half way mark through life. The next decade heralds (very loudly) that I’m two thirds of the way done.
You see how this clinging to that zero takes on more importance!
Well, we all know the drill.
Twelve more months did slip by.
And once again I faced my May birthday. The LED of my age did blink, replacing the zero with a one. Somehow the six in the tens place seems to loom even larger now.
I’m certain that Almighty Father God shakes His head in humored tolerance as I’m the gazillion-bizillionth human who has burbled a lackluster opinion about the speed of this earthly life.
{Posting with other musing thinkers over at Emily's blog as we gather to wonder about new learnings for the month.}
