My Blog to The One: 31 and Getting Older

It's my birthday today. Today I am 31 years old.

Yes, I admitted it, because age is just a number, and I never understood why it is supposed to be a big secret. I mean, maybe if I was single and interested in some 28 year old guy, but then again, I've always liked a more mature man, so obviously this situation is highly unlikely, besides the fact, that I am not single.

This has been a weird birthday for me. It's not the fact that I am out of my twenties, or the fact that I am over 1/3rd of the way through my entire life. It's not the fact that I have, or haven't accomplished my dreams, or the fact that I am older.

Age is just a number.

How many times have you heard that. Sounds cliche, right?

Well, My Great Grandma taught me something very important about age. She was 97 when she passed away. Actually, she was 96 1/2. But just like when you were 17 1/2 years old, and your Mom gave you a curfew, and you said, "But Mooaaammm (all long and whiny like a 4 year old), I'm practically 18." Well that's how it is, she was practically 97.

What she told me, a few years before she passed, is important. She said, "When I wake up, I feel 25. Then I try to move, and I realize I'm not."

I woke up today, and I felt 23.
Not 31, and not 25, because well, when I was 25, my son was practically 3, my daughter was 15 months and I was pregnant with twins. Although, that fact, I did not know yet. I did know I was pregnant and very, very sick.

So, I woke up today, and felt 23. Will I continue to feel this way, forever, and just have to watch my body break down around me. Like watching your carefully built citadel fall before your enemies, right in front of your eyes.

That your sinful, broken, earthly body will betray you, and you will be left in it, even when it doesn't work anymore.

Yes, that is just what is going to happen. Sort of sucks! Another thing my Great Grandma would say was, "It's hard to get old. You get to watch all your friends die."

Well, I'm 31, and I've already lost 1 friend, I have some pain in my hip, now what.....

Well, I have to choose to be young, regardless of how I feel. I'm going to laugh out loud in public, I'm going to try on sunglasses, and make turkey sounds when that silly tag hits my nose and bounces around regardless of who looks oddly at me. (True story, my Great Grandma, Grandma and I actually did this, in Target when I was about 12. Favorite Memory)

I'm going to kiss my husband, tickle my children, and really listen to my friends and NEVER forget, when I see an older lady, or gentleman, who is struggling with something, because their body is old, that, if I can help, to help, and not treat them as a child, or a weak person. But with respect, because on the inside, they feel the exact same as I do!