Most of us have watched as our parents aged and the moment we realized it was time to be very available.

ALSO, as I read this, I thought about Carin and me and how "THEM is ME! (and, you?) now.





It doesn’t happen all at once.
There’s no announcement.
No warning.
No moment where someone taps you on the shoulder and says,
“Look closely — things are different now.”

It happens quietly.

You go home for a visit
and suddenly notice things you somehow missed before:

Your dad rubs his knees before he stands up.
Your mom reaches for the railing when she goes down the steps.
Their voices are softer,
their movements slower,
their naps longer.

You watch them shuffle through the kitchen
the same way they once watched you wobble through your first steps…
and something inside you tightens.

Not in fear.
Not in sadness.
But in a kind of gentle ache
that every adult eventually feels:

The ache of realizing your parents are aging
and you can’t stop it.

You hear them ask, “Can you open this jar?”
and your heart pauses for a second.

You notice how small they seem
in rooms that once felt too small for their energy.

You hear a story repeated for the third time,
and instead of correcting them,
you just listen.
Because you understand now —
the story matters more than the accuracy.

You watch them walk to the car slowly,
hands steadying themselves on the door,
and it hits you…

These are the same hands
that held your whole world together for years.

And now they are asking you
— quietly, without saying a word —
to hold them back.

There comes a day
when you stop seeing them as “Mom and Dad,”
and start seeing them
as people who are doing their very best
with the years they have left.

People who still laugh,
still love,
still light up when you walk through the door,
but who move a little slower
and need you a little more.

It’s a universal ache —
that moment you realize
time has been touching them too.

But there’s a softer truth in it:

Aging doesn’t take them away.
It brings you closer.
It makes you gentler.
It makes you present.
It makes every ordinary moment
feel like something you want to tuck carefully into your heart.

One day, you realize your parents have become
“older people.”

And instead of resisting it,
you learn to treasure them harder,
love them deeper,
and stay a little longer when you can.

Because these are the days
you’ll wish you could return to
when life moves on
and the house feels too quiet again.
#emotionalhealing