shocking insight!

For someone so straightforward and not so full-of-frills as Sanjiv, my husband, it was simply a piece of brilliance. He summed up our life together in three basic time frames- the 0-25 years spent with parents, the 25-50 years that we will soon clear with flying colours and the grace of God, and the 50-75 years that we will enter to discover an extended piece of good luck and blessings if we gun for the next term which is 75 and above!
Years 25-50 have simply blinked us by- either we are fiercely in love or we are just not conscious about how time has passed while we have been busy. It is also possible that we do not want to admit that we are growing old! But we cannot have 22 and 20 year old children at 25 can we? Its difficult to find a reason for the fact that we have arrived at the second threshold all too soon…. To my mind it seems that we have been in so many places for short periods of time that we have simply forgotten how to count or keep track of time - had we stayed on in one place perhaps, it would have been different- we would have kept track of time and understood the meaning of living together for 25 years , and bringing up children too. What happened when and how invites the magic answer- we don’t know- it just happened! In bits and pieces, in spurts and jitters, amidst happiness and sorrow, peals and sobs, the years silently slipped by, maybe roared by, time was unobtrusive, always in the background and life seems so short now!And so much to accomplish!
Happiness is what happiness does. It makes me look all fresh and glowing, it makes Sanjiv smile without a reason- seldom have I heard him laughing out loud- when he is really happy he has this full laugh that shows up his perfect teeth so beautifully. Happiness also makes me look at my babies with wonder- are they really mine- these two beautiful specimens of humanity? My eyes cloud over when I am happy- I do so want to cry. For the simple reason that my heart wants to stop and freeze this moment but the moment does not have the time to stop or even heed our call. The moment just goes, and we are lucky to have such precious moments revisit us whenever we start feeling weighed down with the downs!
On why the years have blinked us by, I can attribute another reason- we did not get anything on a plate- we worked towards everything, be it love, wealth, lifestyle, work, whatever….. everything was hard to get, especially the near perfect way we wanted all that everything- it took its time and tried our patience- and the years spent on the effort sped past on wings!
The parting shot to this entire discussion of life in three frames from my really thoughtful husband lingers on in my mind-one of these days I will ask him why he has to dampen my spirits by saying something like the first two frames are near done-the third is about to begin! Well…just for that thought....cheers!