What If...

You didn't know your age? I was thinking the other day about all the ways in which define ourselves, and evaluate ourselves and I can't tell you how often I hear someone say (including myself)... well, I am (insert age), I should be doing this or accomplished this or have this by this age. Often we say well, I need to be out of school by this age, have this job by this age and the list goes on and on. When I was backpacking in India, we went through so many small villages. We would stop along the way to have chai, rest, sleep, etc. At one of the villages I wanted to know the age of the boy who was serving us chai. When asked, the boy said that he had no idea what his age was. He said he felt like he was 15, and that he had been through about 15 planting seasons, but he really didn't know. I found this to be pretty incredible. The boy didn't know his own age. I thought, what about celebrating birthdays? When we left the village I remember thinking about this for a long time, and even now 3 years later... I think more often than not, we get wrapped up in our heads about our age. Whether we're too old for something, too young for something, instead of just doing what we feel like we need to do. When I was home over Easter, I taught my mom a series of yoga poses, some were harder than others, but my mom is strong, a lot stronger than she gives herself credit for. Throughout the series she kept reminding me of her age... and I thought, what if she didn't know her age? What if she thought she was 10 years younger, then what would she think? We use a lot of descriptions to define who we are, our place in life. But, what if... you didn't know how old you were? What if... just for the day you could let go and allow yourself just to feel without being caught up in the head with things that supposedly "define" you.

If, I didn't know my age, I think I'd be about the same... but, I probably wouldn't worry so much about accomplishing things at a certain age. What do you think? Does age matter in terms of accomplishments? Or do you not even think about it?

If you do, maybe think about this: "Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and how you do it."- Maya Angelou

image via Lets Drift Away