I remember the first time I started really thinking in terms of DECADES. Our elder son was about ten. Off the cuff, I mentioned something that had happened about 15 years before.
It was his first true realization that there had in fact been “life” before him…
And it was my first recognition that I was “old.”
Today I am thinking in terms of decades of commitment. My darling Tom and I have officially been a couple for longer than we were not.
This particular threshold feels almost as momentous as that first “double-digit” birthday, or the realization that once high school is over, childhood is also gone.
Are we really old? Perspective suggests we would have been considered on the cusp of old age in our grandparents’ generation. Today, however, people twenty years our senior are running marathons, picking up new instruments, learning new languages, and conquering mountains.
We aren’t old yet, but I have to say I am really looking forward to growing old together.
I love you, Tom.