Somewhere in our early forties, we start to realise how fragile life is. It comes in the form of slow mornings, mood and energy swings and taking that little bit longer to bounce back. The days require more of us than they used to and there are some moments when we need a personal pep talk just to do what we did so easily a few years before. Things take more effort to do and undo because we have linked people, places and emotions to our years. And it brings with it the realisation that we don’t have forever to do the things we want to do and that every breath is counted. Somewhere in this, comes a renewed energy to fulfil every wistful ambition and keep filling up our lives. A joyous sense that though we may not have forever, we do have now. Our glasses are only half full with yet more space to fill.

How is it that we turn another year old while still feeling 25? Not that we don’t carry the weight of our years, but our restless minds are always in pursuit of more. It’s what makes grandmothers get their PhD’s and 50-year-olds quit their job and buy an around the world airline ticket. I don’t know why people label grown up spontaneity as a mid-life crisis, maybe it would be better called a half-time adventure. It’s that final frontier we can still break through in pursuit of filling up our glass.

Time doesn’t really exist as we’re growing up; the days are long, the season’s drift gently and an hour with your best friend seems to last forever. Our glasses fill slowly, a drop of water here and there as our experiences tumble in. Slowly as the years slide together, the water rises. Because we can’t see the rim, we wholeheartedly keep filling ourselves up. And it’s wonderful! When we’re not looking at the boundary, anything is possible. It belongs only to the young, not to be bound by time. When does it happen that we lose this ability to be carefree and aspiring? All this energy to keep filling our glass somehow finds its limitations and we cease our boundlessness.

Every experience, each relationship, everything we create, shape or do keeps filling up our lives. With each involvement, our water slowly fills up the glass. So when we see that our glass is filling quickly, is it any wonder we want to take the plunge? Life is a joy! And no matter whether our glass is half full or half empty, there’s still more to jump into. It’s only when we’ve done all there is to do, walked all the steps our feet are meant to take, ventured to all the places we are meant to experience that our glass is full.

The belief that we can whisper our affirmations into our glass of water and drink it believing we are ingesting our thoughts makes a simple drink something powerful. Seeing the glass half full or half empty predicates our frame of mind. Knowing that until our glass is full we have a whole life yet to live, is sometimes just what we need to be reminded of.