Reflection, Ritual, Reconnection, Reset, Renewed
It is 10:23 a.m. on Sunday, July 12, 2026. Pull up a seat…come join me on my verandah for a few minutes.
I am sitting here nursing my first cup of coffee and letting the morning stillness sink into my bones while I record my thoughts. Last night, I was out celebrating a magnificent 70th birthday milestone, a vibrant room full of laughter and music that kept me up until past 3:00 a.m.
From My Camera Roll: Celebrating 70 years of a life beautifully lived. It was an evening filled pure joy, deep laughter, and vibrant anticipation.
Sitting here now, a little sleepy but deeply full, I am thinking about how we measure a life.
Most people look toward milestones by counting down. "I’m counting down to my next birthday," they say, as if time is an hourglass running dangerously low. But somewhere around the time I turned 50, I quietly dropped that language. I stopped counting down. At the time, I had just lost my mother, who died suddenly one month before her 70th birthday, and four months later, my beloved maternal aunt followed her at the age of 66. Those two women did not count down their age. They looked forward in great anticipation.
So, I started to count up.
Now, here I am just one month away from turning 62, and I am still counting up with immense gratitude.
Flip the Script on Time
We live in a culture that treats aging like an aggressive thief. The architecture around us relies heavily on fear, devaluation, and distraction. It feeds us the fear that we are slowly fading; it uses devaluation to make us focus only on what is supposedly slipping away; and it deploys distraction to keep us fighting the clock instead of enjoying our growth. We are made to become so fluent in the vocabulary of subtraction—the loss of youth, the loss of radiance—that we lack the words for what we actually gain.
But time doesn't just pass us over. It accumulates within us.
When I count up to a birthday, I am totaling the assets. I am accounting for the judgment, the sharp discernment, the unshakeable instinct, and the widescreen perspective that only living and aging can buy. I am accumulating the memory of beautiful nights, the mistakes I survived, the deep loves, and the earned truths that can never be downloaded or scrolled past.
Honor Your Evolution
I love the younger versions of myself and of course there were lessons learned and I have evolved. But I have absolutely no desire to become those versions again. To return to them, I would have to surrender too much of who I have fought to become to arrive right here. I would have to give back the pride of publishing my debut novel Webs, Love & Fireworks, the deep intimacy of writing The Heart is Home, the sweat and vision of founding my lifestyle brand, AUBRIEA, and the rich, unfolding layers of our family legacy.
The younger me had raw possibility; I have realized perspective. She had the instinct to be liked; I have earned the instinctive freedom of knowing that not every opinion or invitation deserves an answer.
With time, we are not less. We are exponentially more.
This Sunday’s R: Reconnection
My ritual is simple. I am sitting with this coffee, looking out at the light, and deliberately counting up. I am taking inventory of the brilliant layers time has added to my soul. This is an act of deep, fierce reconnection; returning to myself, holding my own space, and remembering that my value is multiplied by every single year I inhabit.
My invitation to you today: Flip the script on time. Stop counting down to what is next or looking back at what was. Take a moment today to count up. What beautiful, solid thing has time deposited in you this year that you refuse to give back? Please drop me a comment.
Share this reflection with a loved one today as the exact reminder they need to celebrate their own growth and count up.
With love and radiant light...until next time...
xo, Marcia 🌹
Bring Calm into Your Week
- Reflect: Begin your own journey of presence with the Heart is Home Journal.
- Explore: Discover the stories we wear with the Core Statements Collection.
- Read: Dive into Marcia Melody's debut romance novel, Webs, Love & Fireworks on AUBRIEA.