In just a couple
short weeks I will get one year closer to the third decade of my life. One year
down, just one to go. I’ve always been a little, shall we say, hesitant about
getting older. Not so much getting older though, but growing up. I’m very lucky
and very thankful (to my parents mostly) that I can say I had a great
childhood. I’m the youngest of five kids and in my memory everything looks like
old photos taken with a 35mm Minolta camera- all warmly lit and high key. We
would all pile into a station wagon for camping trips in the summer. We swam in
lakes, picked strawberries, carved pumpkins, got into fights, got into trouble,
fed the dog under the table, climbed trees, fell out of trees, and basically
had all sorts of adventures and misadventures (although I’m not entirely sure
what the difference is). It’s hard to leave all that boisterous, carefree fun
behind and turn to more serious, reserved adult-type stuff.
I’m definitely
still in the midst of this weird, at times exciting, at times
spirit-squelching, process of growing up. I’m reminded of two songs, in
particular, that tackle this subject:
I Don’t Want to
Grow Up by Tom Waits (although the Ramones version and the Petra Haden version
are both great.)
New Kind of Love
by Plants and Animals
If you haven’t
heard these songs, please, look them up and take a listen. Both perfectly
express that whole clinging-to-childhood-by-your-fingertips thing. They will
make you smile while a little tear ekes out the corner of your eye. They do my
heart good.
So, all of this
has been swimming around in my head of late. But today the sun was shining and
there was a cool spring breeze. I took some bright yellow cotton yarn, my
husband, and some milkshakes (of course), and went to Central Park for a few
uninterrupted hours of peace, knitting, and general lazing around in the grass.
That did my heart good too.
So, maybe I
haven’t solved my 1/3-life crisis. But who cares when you have yarn on your
needles and the sun on your face?
