Tag: Thursday Thoughts

The Habit of Rushing Time as We Age

Photo by Jeffrey Paa Kwesi Opare

A 28-year-old might say, “I’m almost thirty.”

A 38-year-old might say, “Wow, I am almost 40.”

A 48-year-old might say, “Sheesh. I am almost 50.”

Rarely do we appreciate where we are without becoming anxious about where we are going.

I wonder why this is and if it keeps us from being grateful for where we are. Sometimes I wonder if I fully appreciated my twenties when I was in it.

I guess that’s why they say hindsight is 20/20.

My twin sister and me talk about this often because we don’t like to rush our age. When we turned 36 this year, we didn’t say, “We are almost 40.” We said: “Yay, we are 36!”

This doesn’t mean we haven’t thought about approaching 40 (cause like, do it hurt?), but we don’t like to rush our age time.

I am not 37 until I am 37 and not forty until I am 40.

I hope to keep this outlook on life as I age into my 40s, 50s, 60s, or however long I have left.

Instead of saying how much older we are getting, perhaps we can enjoy every minute of where we are now.

Do Not Write a Poem

Photo by Anthony Tran on Unsplash

Do not set out to write a poem. Strip yourself of all the education you think will make you a good writer, and undress all the fluff you believe constitutes a good poem. Write only what is in your heart at this exact moment—every thread of thought and every emotion you have not the courage to feel out loud. Write this. That thing you are afraid to say. Write that. Approach the page vulnerable. Come open. Come raw. Come wounded or come healed, but come bared of what you think poetry is and become the poem instead. Write accurately and precisely every sentiment you have bottled up inside. In writing what is in the most sacred part of your being, and the most intense sections of your soul, you may unintentionally stumble on something beautifully authentic.

You may even call it a poem.