Saturday morning began with a video text of one of the grands doing a wild gymnastics routine on an exercise mat in the middle of their family room. She was lunging, flipping and cartwheeling (barely clearing the sofa, the TV and a younger sister’s head), all to the soothing strains of “Who Let the Dogs Out?”

The antics culminated in a headstand. There may have been more. We couldn’t tell because her legs wobbled toward the camera and the video abruptly ended in a blur.

“Typical weekend?” I messaged back to our daughter. “Your Uncle Bob and I used to have headstand contests during family holidays in Ohio.”

“When was that?” came an immediate response. I detected skepticism oozing through my phone.

I began thinking. If she, our youngest, was a toddler at that time . . . I would have been about . . . and the year would have been about . . .

I need paper for this one. I subtract my approximate age (circa the Headstand Era) from 2025, borrow from the tens, subtract, borrow from the hundreds, subtract and carry down the hundreds and thousands columns.

The year was 1988. “That was ages ago!” I exclaim.

The kind soul I am married to (and did not participate in the contests) simplifies the matter saying, “It was last century.”

Realizing one of my more notable achievements is now “last century” was like having the wind knocked out of me.

Funny how we spend our early years yearning to be older, dreaming about the freedoms and privileges that come with age. Then we actually are older, enjoying the freedoms and privileges of age, which look a lot like work, taxes, marriage, parenting, meal prep, grocery store runs, more meal prep, car repairs, health concerns, teen concerns, looming retirement and cooking dinner 967 days a year. We then realize we are on a speeding train that will not and cannot stop.

Time is a wily rascal. Some days drag like a slow crawl through mud, while others pass rapid-fire like lightning bolts. The speed of each day may vary, but the calendar pages keep time to a steady beat.

Recent news reports say that 20% of people in their 20s and 30s are prematurely feeling the onset of middle age. Stress over job security, relationships, debt and retirement years are making them feel older than they are.

Whether you feel your age or not, whether you can do a headstand or can’t, one thing is certain — the clock is ticking.

The last book Billy Graham wrote before he died was “Nearing Home.” It is a good read in any season of life. I copied one of his lines on the inside leaf of the book. Graham wrote, “Growing old has been the biggest surprise of my life.”

Seize the day – and brace yourself.

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