Being old looks like a messy dinner table with an ocean view behind it. It looks like a family who enjoyed their dinner and then found something else to enjoy, leaving the table the way it is.
Being old looks like an “oof” when you put your left hand down on the wooden floor of your living room and lower the rest of your body to join your children in criss cross apple sauce.
Being old looks like a Christmas tree decorated with strings of popcorn in remembrance of your own childhood traditions.
It looks like belly aches, headaches, runny noses, possible casts on childrens forearms from runaway bicycles, the refrigerator always stocked with something to eat, a large but cozy kitchen all at once.
A long driveway, the sound of the car arriving home and your loved ones walking through the door, a doorbell and handing out king-sized candy bars to little monsters.
Candle-lit dinners, surprises, loyalty, reading to each other, learning from each other, walks on the beach with no destination and no time limit.
Rain, sunshine, snow, sand, love.
It looks like the scent of warmth.
Being old looks like family members falling asleep on the couch in various positions and being the first to wake up, seeing them entertain their dreams, their chests rising up and down, peace.
It looks like a grandmother bending down to gently pick up one of her grandchildren and carrying them up the stairs to a bed where the duvet has already been pulled down by their grandfather.
Being old looks like teamwork. Ever-expanding in different directions and bending back toward each other. A tender distance so we’ll both be free, thats how it ought to be.
To bend around their existence, their eras of life, their desires to be bold and adventurous, to go see and do, to find and to live.
The existence of everlasting, ever-bending, ever-expanding, mind, body, and soul enrapturing, beautifully complex, curiously familiar, brilliant sweetness.
You know yourself and you know you’re very difficult to know and so you wait for the people who are capable of knowing you.