It's Happening.

Slowly and subtly, it has come.  You don't notice the little things that make the big difference, you only catch the bits everyone told you to expect.

You're getting old.

Can't stay up late and get up early, drink a cup of coffee to offset the deficit.  Your joints may ache just a bit more than you remember from a year ago.  Running after the kids leaves you winded, and recovery involves sitting on your possibly expanding region of fat over your glutes (due to your metabolism slowing, "thirty years of life, you ought to know to stay away from an extra fry, fatty" says your body).  You knew this was going to happen; it's remarked upon in hundreds of comedy shows and movies you'll run across on popular tv networks.

One of many I could name...

But what about the sneaky, unassuming and pervasive changes that you only discover one night sitting at the kitchen table, engaged in your yearly life reflection (in my case, weekly.  But I'm an anxiety-ridden spazz)?  If you look real hard, you'll see it just like I did.

A piece of pie partnered with a cup of coffee.

Shoot, any pastry placed in front of you makes you consider throwing back another cup of caffeine laced tar goodness.

I'm salivating just looking at this picture.  I might need to go out before I finish this post...

You're reading more than just the comic section of the paper.  In fact, it doesn't even take a headline anymore to grab your attention.  It's open to the "Metro" section and the sidebar text stops you in the middle of whatever other exciting endeavor you may've been engaged in.

It's easy to pick something up and put it "in the right place".  In fact, you now contain the "proper place" vision your parents always spoke of, but which completely eluded you until around the age of 26.

Just because you can now visualize it doesn't mean you have it.  What you have is kids.

You can talk at lengths about the weather.  With anyone.  Because it's relevant.

The speed limit, or five miles over, is fast enough thank you very much.  And anyone who passes you? "I'm going blah blah blah and the speed limit is only blah blah and they're still passing me!"  Sound familiar?  Yeah, your dad said it and now so are you.

Landing on the news at 6 am is not an accident (or in my case, waiting on edge for the time of morning when the news programs will finally start).

"Why see it in the theaters when we can just rent it?"

Thinking to yourself and/or saying aloud how different prices were when YOU were a kid.  And you aren't saying it ironically.  That stuff comes out before you even realize what you're saying.

If this were right now I'd be filling BARRELS.

Or how about the fact that politicians and children used to be much more respectful?

As each year passes you grow more and more familiar with what a particular food does to your digestive tract and what pill or powder will offset the negative effects.

And throwing caution to the wind means ingesting whatever ill-advised food it is without your pills or powder nearby.

You have every intention of getting drunk but fall asleep after the first shot/cocktail.  Probably in front of the television.

All of these, and probably more, are the more sinister signs that you're growing old, because they catch you off guard, unsuspecting.  They creep in and before you know it you're monitoring your stroke and heart disease risk and taking anti-coagulents while waiting for reruns of The Price is Right.  Our main concern is raising our babies and trying to enjoy the time our own parents have left during these fleeting mid-years, we don't notice what's happening to us.  We may lament wasting so many opportunities from our childhood, early adulthood;  we may be thankful that we made it through with our bodies and our minds intact.

This is my reminder to myself, and if it resonates with you too, all the better:  Live, now.  In the quiet moments, in between baseball games and ballet recitals and conferences and ER runs and considering your estate; live.  Wake up an hour early or stay up an hour later than the rest of the house and take that chance to remember what it's like to tend only to you.  You need that just as much as your children and your parents need the same attention.

Life in your late 20's-30's.  These moments are the best.

While making sure everyone else in your life is living the best life they can, make sure you do too.