The Stages Of Life

I was walking along a busy street the other day, on my way to do one of my favourite tasks, recon of new arrivals in store. As I was manoeuvring my way through, what seemed to be, a never ending stream of pedestrians, my attention was brought to a man playing a violin.

There was something so sweet and familiar to the notes he was playing and for some reason, a song from the movie ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ came to mind…

“Sunrise, sunset
Sunrise, sunset
Swiftly flow the days
Seedlings turn overnight to sunflowers
Blossoming even as we gaze. 

Sunrise, sunset
Sunrise, sunset
Swiftly fly the years
One season following another
Laden with happiness and tears”

 

As I passed him by, our eyes locked for a second and he smiled at me – naturally I smiled back, and for the rest of the day, I had this earworm of a song in my head! I just couldn’t shake it! And it made me think about how quickly the years pass by and how my own life has been a full tapestry of experiences – joyful, fun, sad, happy, emotional, anxious, empowered – so many feelings over so many years!

When I got home later in the evening, after the usual household chores that needed my attention, and after having dinner with Cal, my husband, instead of switching on the television or putting on a movie to unwind, I found myself moving to my favourite chair in the house; I sat down and cosied up with a glass of wine, had my favourite music on in the background and allowed my mind to drift, and took a walk down Memory Lane to revisit the many stages of my life.

Is this something you have ever done? Allowed the time to reflect on your whole life to date? I would imagine it would bring up a multitude of memories, feelings and thoughts…

When we think back to how we were as a young child compared to how we are today, the world looked very different. Of course, times have changed. Technology has advanced and society is evolving so rapidly, sometimes it’s hard to keep up!

Do you ever take time though, to remember the young girl you were back then? What were your dreams? What made you happy? What made you sad?

In our innocence then, the things that motivated us then wouldn’t probably even register on our radar today! It might have been as simple as wanting to make the sports team, or wanting to get good grades or wanting to be the ‘popular’ child in school.

As a teenager, Life was about being with our friends and enjoying life without a care in the world. Topping up our tans in the summertime on the beaches or under the shade of a huge coolabah tree, our only anxieties were about coping with the changes our bodies were going through, or if the boy we liked, liked us too!

Once we finished school, we either made the choice to get a job and choose a profession or career that would help us transition into adult life. Some of us went on for further academic study and supported ourselves with part time jobs so we could afford to move out and live with friends or save hard for our own place. What a sense of pride and achievement it felt like!

Along the way, we might have met someone special, connected with them in a way that was different to anyone else, shared our hopes and dreams with them and ultimately, fell in love. Some of us have been lucky to have found that a couple of times in life and have clocked up memories and different experiences along the way.

Some of us have experienced the joys of motherhood while others have experienced the joy of being an aunt, or uncle or having little ones in our lives that we can nurture and care for when we spend time with them.

Of course, Life is Life, so not all our experiences will have been joyful or happy ones. We’ll have experienced sadness through sickness or periods of ill health, and of course, the loss of loved ones along the way. Importantly, we always have the memories and the sound of laughter in our ears when we think back about the ones who have passed on.

Now, please don’t think I’m being sad or being on a downer! I’m not!

It’s just interesting thinking how different our experiences are, we are all at different stages coping with different things in different ways! Just look at our office environment, Lacey who has just turned 25, Nicole, a mum with a young family and Rachel who has recently married!

My point is that when you take the time to look back on Life, really revisit all of the experiences in your life, just look at how much you have achieved! There are so many stages in Life that we all go through and it is these different experiences along these different stages that have shaped us into who we are!

Every line on our faces as we age, I like to think, is another memory, another experience. Many of them are from times of great fun spending time with our family and friends – you know the nights where you nearly wet yourself from laughing and your stomach and face hurt! For us women with children, those stretchmarks are reminders of how we carried our babies and brought them into life, and the fun and challenges they gave us along the way!

Not everyone gets to live Life to the full, in fact, some are not as lucky as we are to have gone through so many amazing stages. So, it is with that thought I’ll sign off for this week. I’ll leave you to take time to revisit your Life, the many stages you have grown through and the wonderful things you have achieved, seen and lived!