I've lost...well, my youth. Not that I am just noticing; this has been going on for quite a while. However, I am often surprised when I look in the mirror and see this person that I have become. The hair is gray. Wrinkles have deepened and multiplied. Glasses are essential. On and on. There is an unconscious part of me that still expects to see my thirtyish self in that truth-telling reflection, but the fact is that I am changing day by day into this new me. It's not bad; it just gives me a weird feeling in my gut that can almost take my breath away.
That's the outside...what everyone else can see and that I notice in others of my age group, but there is no mirror to my inside. Changes are ripening there as well. I've moved to a new-found appreciation of life and developed a mellowness that is expanding internally as the gray hairs multiply on my head. There is a richness and contentment to my life now that I was too busy to develop when I was fretting about my responsibilities and hectic schedule.
Now. It's a good place. But I don't look in the mirror as much as I once did.
Mr. and Mrs. Titmouse have been oh, so busy the past few weeks weathering the wind and the rain in preparation for the arrival of their new family. Watching this nest building marathon from my kitchen window has been more entertaining than Dancing With the Stars and American Idol all rolled into one. 
