For years now on and off I have been processing in all sorts of ways what being an adult means. And I reckon it's so different to what I believed it was when I turned 18 ... beliefs which have shaped me so deeply and impacted myself and others profoundly. There are certainly different points over the last 14 years where I've thought about and experienced this question more deeply than others but it's impact has been continuous.
And what does it mean to age? Not the kind of aging that happens at 70 or so (although that is just on a continuum anyway) - what does it mean that at 32 you can't do what you could at 22. But that you have wisdom and life that you didn't have then whihc means you can work more productively and where we choose to live more fulfillingly.
As I process life particularly following mum's death, these are some glimpses into questions I'm asking and things I'm processing. Within the first week following mum's death, my key statement was "if I wasn't an adult before now, I am now" - so what does that mean?
1 comment:
The death of one's parent, indeed any hardship that causes immense grief (ie. diagnosis of an neurological disease! LOL!) being a rite of passage to adulthood? You could also say that both birth and life being a rite of passage to adulthood, namely in giving birth to a baby one would become an adult too... Although, there are many 'parents' out there who are not 'adults'..!
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