My youngest niece turned 1 in December and it got me thinking about how much we change in a year. It’s so easy to see it in her. A year ago she was a squashy, helpless bundle that I could hold with one hand.
Now she’s walking, chasing balloons, eating cupcakes and doing things.
With adults it’s much harder to see the changes that come in a year. Maybe a new crease in the corner of your eyes, a few silver hairs, a shoulder that inexplicably aches.
But I think we change just as much in a year as kids do. Maybe our physical changes have slowed. Inside though we’re a year of choices older, a year of world changes, lost and gained loved ones, memories, food, footsteps, ideas, sorrows, joys and experiences.
I guess my point is that when I look at my one year old niece and she smirks like she has some private joke, I think of all the things that have just filled her first year of life and know that maybe she does have some private jokes.
Mostly though I remember holding her tiny body in the crook of my arm and I wonder what we will fill the next year with.
