Weekly Mantra - Abusing the Present & Getting Older

It's somehow a couple of days away from my birthday.

Around this time of year, there is always two visions: looking back and looking ahead. What happened last year? What do I hope for another one? My birthday falls in the spring, the season of forced renewal. As another year passes for me this week, I will wake up and feel the same. I'll look the same, dress the same and act the same, but upon closer inspection I'll realize that I'm not the same at all. People may stress me out with their perceived notion of what it means to be my new age, and others may marvel at how much time I have to figure it out. Either way, I vow to embrace the day and move ahead with some sort of adult grace.

This week's mantra comes from Susan Sontag and focuses on growing up, even if your birthday is not fast-approaching.

"The fear of becoming old is born of the recognition that one is not living now the life that one wishes. It is equivalent to a sense

of abusing the present."

*Also, with the recent tragedy at the Boston marathon, gratitude for health, safety and loved ones is more important than frivolous stress on age. Noted.

Quarter Century

When talking to my mother on the phone recently, I relayed my thoughts about turning 25.

She told me that every year, on her birthday, she allows herself one hour to sit around and mope. She gives herself this limited amount of time to reflect on the year and soak in any feelings of nostalgia or "broodiness" as she calls it. She says that this hour has nothing to do with getting old in a vanity context (you won't catch my mother crying about wrinkles or contemplating botox) but she says, it's more about reflecting on the process of reaching another age and the mixed feelings that can come with that.

Once the hour is up, she goes about her day, practicing gratitude for life and starting fresh. There is no moping or sadness or complaining after that. She gets on with it. 

While I'm turning a big milestone today I can't help but think about the things that lie ahead and behind me. I have been thinking about the responsibilities that come along with getting older and the pressure to achieve certain things. However, today I will try and focus on the new adventures that lie in front of me and believe that wherever I am today, is exactly where I should be. I will not compare myself to other 25 year olds (past or present) and make my own path towards something new. I hope that I don't even use my allotted one hour.

Above is my first gift from my parents: a new pair of "real woman shoes" as I call them and a classic Kate Spade watch.

Here's to another quarter. xx