Age 35: a milestone. If it all ends right now, I’ve had a good life.
Or perhaps this is the writer in me talking. Though, what I’m certain of—and honestly I’m not sure if age has anything to do with it—is that love is the answer for everything.
It takes no effort to love, yet unconditional love is possibly the most difficult state to achieve. For anybody.
Evolution, of course, is a factor in this. At 35, I find myself surrounded with success, which I hadn’t paid much attention to in the past. But being this age opened my eyes to the fact that how we look, how much money we make, and who our friends are, are the fabrics of who we are—at least on the outside.
As I contemplate these, I am grateful that in my 20’s I thought it was a good idea to plant seeds in those areas of my life.
But it hasn’t always been easy. I had to overcome a lot of suffering that even today, the thought of can take me out of alignment with myself. I am also glad to have found creative ways to work through what, I can see now, is undoubtedly known in some cultures as life’s suffering.
This is all the more relevant when we look at the precarious state of the world’s affairs. It becomes, then, very difficult in this context not to see love as the only and obvious choice. So, choosing again a life of purpose at age 35 substantiates this belief.
But the most important lesson turning 35 has taught me is how death—as heartbreaking as it feels—fits into all of this.
Enjoying—fully—life, the present moment, the people who we love, and all those who make up our lives truly is the secret of life.
