Being thirty

Half of threescore is about when responsibilities kick in and you don’t have someone else to hand them back to, but you don’t really mind because no one can argue that you are a Grown Up Now. Even if they do remind you that you used to wash bread when it fell on the floor. Well, it wasn’t clean.

I have just completed my thank you letters (I hope), so that means I can now wear the ‘Responsible’ badge I’d been hoping to for a while.

I was looking forward to turning thirty. It seems that a lot of exciting things happen in your thirties and you are able to enjoy them more, having already sorted out various other bits of life along the way.

Dad is sixty, and getting younger by the day. In some respects. Today we all discovered a nice place to sit out and have a drink and watch the boats in the quay. I’m not sure he heard (or listened to) all our chatter, but he is definitely back to his former self in so many ways. We all enjoyed watching somebody else’s toddler discover how to empty Large Connect Four discs out of a sack and put them in the rack – so that they didn’t fall out… It was a small moment of triumph as the human race moved forward another step, elegantly put by the child: ‘I did it!’

Which sums up how life feels right now. The difficulties are short-lived and minor when you consider the achievements. Enjoying the good things, big or small, and seeing the larger perspective always help me get back on track.

Being thirty doesn’t mean that I can automatically cook any better or remember what I went into town for without a list, but in so many areas now we are counting the little victories and enjoying what is good.