When I was younger, I remember older people be it my parents, grandparents or others saying something along the lines of ~ “my life went by so fast, it seems like yesterday I was 19, 25, and now I have no idea where all that time went. I just blinked and suddenly I am 65, 70 or 80.” …. My response to hearing such things was always to think ~ “what a strange way to be alive …”
Now that I have reached an age where I am beginning to fill the void left by all those older people, I find that I am now experiencing life going by too fast, and saying the very same things that were once said to me.
Why does this happen
…?
I believe in part it is down to “routine”, the enemy of time, which makes
the days fly by. When you’re a kid everything is astonishing, everything is
new, your brain is awake, alert and turned on, so in every passing second you are learning something new, and how the world around you works.
As you get older, your brain has worked out the patterns of how the
world works, how to go to school, how to get a job, how to manage money, how to
get a mortgage and so much more of life’s requirements. Once you have all that
unlocked, your brain establishes a routine, it stops, and the alertness goes away,
along with the fascination of how the world around you works.
So perhaps a solution to this ~ is to keep your brain fascinated and
turned on, plan to be aware of every single day you’re alive, with the desire
to reach your last day thoroughly exhausted because your time was not wasted.
I think this is the duty of being an adult, because when you’re a kid and everything
is new you don’t have to work for it, your surroundings come to you. But once
you’re an adult it becomes a choice, you can choose adventure for your own life,
to go and find things that are interesting, that will turn your crank and keep
the brain active during the search ~ it’s about getting out of your routine,
which can look like anything.
With this in mind, in recent years I have raised the pace of my life ~ with
photography, lots of time spent smiling at nature, volunteering for the CWGC, getting
involved with numerous WWI & WWII research projects, writing, building a
boat, ticking off my travel bucket list and much more.
The travelling has been a particular highlight that has rewarded me with
visits to new and beautiful places, offering extraordinary sights and memorable
experiences, all while keeping me fascinated, alert and ready for the
unexpected, of which there has been a few ..!!
Life here in the South Shore together with my many wanders does it too,
regardless of how many times I walk the same beach or hike that same trail,
each outing keeps the brain turned on by offering something new, different and
occasionally exciting.
In conclusion, I don’t want the days to control me or the calendar to be my boss, I want to control my days, I want to choose the adventures, which will create a mind and soul that is wide awake, which may turn my 80, 90, 100 or preferably 113 years on this planet into feeling something like a 1000 ~ I hope ~ but if not it will be good, rewarding and fun while I try …
Having said all that, my day today was in fact controlled, by an
external force ~ too much snow. Before the obligatory clear up, I went out with
my camera and took some pics around the empire, into the forest, then down to
the LaHave River, before the tractor and snow blower got to work …
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