I've had the fortune (or perhaps misfortune if you will) to come across some recent photos of two of my exes this year. It was an eye opener.

I've been guilty of wallowing in sweet memories for half of my adult life. Well, not so sweet actually in case of ex #2. I've said this before but.... it's unnerving how people in your memories never age. Everything is frozen in time. Then, when you are presented with reality it's a rather shocking jolt. I'll be the first to say that I do not quite resemble myself as I was 20 years ago; then again, I'm not half bad either, if I may say so myself.

So, seeing various exes in various stages of aging and letting themselves go over time....it actually gives me a bit of a confidence boost. Is that sick or what? Ha!

I suppose this is the same reason funeral directors put make up on the dearly departed and in the case of horrible accidents it is ill advised to view the body. I am very visual person. I retain snapshots of everything I see fairly vividly in my memory. Sometimes these new images replace the old ones. This could be cause for endless nightmares (as in the case of seeing dead babies in the recent Middle East conflict), heartache (as in the case of abused and suffering animals) and so forth. In that case it's not a good thing to have such a photographic memory.

In the case of my departed exes (no they are not dead, but some may as well be) it is actually a good thing. All part of growing up. You finally see them as they really are, as they have become and as they will continue to be and change even further. It serves as a catalyst for me to keep growing and as fellow blogger Dawn so aptly says, "growth is shifting".

I am shifting into a new phase of my life and while I was seriously depressed upon hitting the big 4 0 for a while, I am only now beginning to embrace it. You simply cannot be 20 forever. I hear "you are only as old (young) as you feel" all the time and I'm not so sure of that makes a lot of sense for me. I felt 20something for most of my adult life while my body decided to just keep on getting older. Which is not to say that I now feel 40something per se. I simply am in the process of acceptance and you know, it's not so bad. I'm actually enjoying the ride!