“Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind” – Bruce Lee

 

Our experiences in life shape us and the more we experience, the more potential there is for us to learn lessons and grow.

 

We grow out of some views we once held and develop new perspectives.

 

We grow out of some friendships we thought would be for life but grow into new ones.

 

Quality becomes more important than quantity in our lives.

 

We realise that the things that mattered to us once, are no longer relevant.

 

We learn to let go.

 

We lose people we care about, people we thought would be there forever.

 

The impermanence of life hits home.  We realise there are no guarantees.  We gain new perspective.

 

Goals that were once important to us are replaced with something new.

 

We simplify where once we complicated.

 

We reduce our infatuation with collecting material possessions and focus on the right sort of enough instead.

 

We chase life experiences over stuff.

 

Bragging rights matter less to us than they once did.  Keeping up with others loses its appeal, we realise what an empty and pointless goal this always was.

 

We start a family and life takes on a whole new focus.

 

We travel to taste other cultures and experience different ways of living.

 

We realise being of service to others brings a joy that outlasts always being of service to ourselves.

 

Gratitude becomes a bigger part of our lives.

 

We make time for slowing down and realise there’s definitely a time for action but also a time for rest.

 

We ask ourselves tough, searching questions.  We commit to a path of developing our best selves.

 

We realise the small pleasures in life are actually the big pleasures.  The birds singing, the first coffee of the day, coming in to a home cooked meal.  These are gifts that keep giving.

 

The face that once looked back at us in the mirror changes.  The lines of age and experience increase.  If we’re lucky, many of those lines have been grooved by laughter and fun.

 

We stumble, we fall, we pick ourselves up.

 

We aim, we reach, we struggle, we achieve.  We grow.

 

Change is a part of all of our lives.  We can embrace it or we can fight against it but it will come all the same.  We can make our peace with the passage of time and commit to living the best lives we can along the way.

 

 

 

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