Can you enjoy the passing of time?
That is to say, the result of it?

Often laid out, is the idea that only fresh and new is desirable when age is understood as tired.

Can you enjoy the passing of time? Let it be your current age, your newfound wrinkles, or those greeted gray hairs. Perhaps it’s that paint chipping along your home, reminding you of what needs tending to. Maybe the passing of time is your interpretation of what you have neglected through your overgrown trees or relationships long forgotten. What do you do with that light fixture that is no longer on-trend or that table that has a few scratches? Are they a morose time stamp of letting things slip by, and needing new is steadily reminded in our human minds?

Again, I ask, can you enjoy the passing of time?

I can enjoy a musty book, my worn-out jeans, and that quilt with frays in all the right places. I can adore an old shop with creaky wood floors that the owner dare-not upgrade, and a garden that has doubled in size from maturity. Or what about that antique Volkswagen Beetle that only gets better with each passing year? Better yet, that passed-down wine vintage that we are all anticipating for the perfect dinner. Heirlooms seem to be forgiven of time showing themselves and antiques are celebrated. So why can’t the same be said for the labelless wonders that we are surrounded by? Would we love that old armchair or door handle without a special name?

What separates the understood acceptable items that have lived through the passing of time, are the stories they hold. Whether the ones we give them or the ones they tell us without words. Value is assigned by the emotional connection we have through the attached story.

So we can enjoy the passing of time, we just need to feel connected to it. That connection is solely at the discretion of the beholder, the one who wields the wand of joy. Can you create a new story for yourself and those new freckles, or even that rusty garden chair? Can you adore the age and wear that this earth gifts to us? When I use my old typewriter, it’s the essence of time bottled up for me to enjoy. Day after day, we enjoy the passing of time without even realizing it. It’s only the less subtle reminders without joyful stories attached, that may take you down. That old paint colour is not your downfall, the reflection of it is the culprit. Can you be the one to give it a new story?