As you get older, it is amazing how fast time goes. When we were young, we wanted to be older, then in no time, we are older, and when you are in the seventies and look back, time has gone so fast, it will amaze you. It hits home when your are in your seventies, and many people around you are dying. You start to feel like life is for the most part behind you. It is not sad, but it is emotional. Where did all the time go? You now get up each day and, it is like the same as the day before. For the men that read this, when you shave, you don’t have to do it again few days. In addition you eat the same food for breakfast every day, as you have found what works for you and most novelty is gone unless you are a chef.

When the Menu Starts to Feel the Same

You do go out and eat lunch and dinner, but the menus seem to have the same things. In Marin it is fish, pasta and chicken. It gets old after a while. You can go to the good restaurants that have unique menus but they are often too expensive to eat there frequently and often everything has a lot of butter and cream to make things taste good. We ate dinner at a Michelin star restaurant the other day and paid hundred of dollars for what was excellent food. The chef came over and we talked a little. Then we had stomach pains all night as the food was too rich and the deserts where too decadent. You could of eaten less, but the menu we fixed price so you got what they gave you. It was a multi-hour experience. A lot of pros and cons.

The next day, you generally go back to what you know you can eat and have the food work, its the way of your body. But for many, the urge for novelty is still there, so you try other dishes at different restaurants. Yes it is fun, but the party sometimes gets boring, as it is one good thing after another until you don’t really notice. Where is spirituality? You can say a pray over the food and join in local talk with others. But this has little meaning and then you go on.

The Shorter Window of Immediate Gratification

For most of the seniors, we can afford to splurge, which is something you saved up for decades. It is now or never. A nice sunset and a beautiful setting are fun things to watch, but the clock seems to be moving faster than normal. There is immediate gratification but it gets shorter and shorter, before some physical issue takes over. In the past, passing time included was looking at you emails and running a business. Now a lot of time is spent on who died and particular organ discussions with you friends, you do get to learn your body parts. Many are suffering with cancer as it spreads through their body. Then it is a conversation about how much time do you have left. Yuck!

The Same News, the Same Cycles

I find that the news is the same each day, wars and killings. Good news is hard to find unless you go to those websites that specialize in them. These are often about some restoration event or an introduction to animals of all kinds that use to roam in that area before mankind fenced things in as started to cut trees and raise cattle. It is a time in your life when you kids are own their own and they go through the same experiences that you did. Leaning as they go, often forgetting your advice. Now with technology and computers time goes faster as you grow up. Time in an absolute sense has not changed but you are diverted more, a nice concept if what you did had meaning, but things just seem to come and go. The change in the last century brought us a whole bunch of problems, but many have never materialized such as a global food shortage, year 2000 and its technology. Dooms day is always present, but never comes. Covid brought a lot of change but things seem back to normal at least for those that have adjusted.

Being Present Is Where the Meaning Lives

I say, how many sunsets and sunrise can you see in a life time and still let it have meaning? This is where being present and being thankful helps out a lot. It is all a wonderful experience, but it all seems to be going so fast. You may have lived longer than the past generations and things keep going at a faster pace. If you think about how conscious we have become, it is something to ponder. We are still fighting wars and our egos seem to be getting bigger. Our leaders seem more corrupt. Money seems to be the dominant factor. And life goes on, however fast. Don’t wait a minute to live it. It will soon be over.