beware of falling coconuts

Have you ever wondered exactly when, at what age, you begin to feel "grown up?" I mean, I behave like an adult (most of the time), am responsible like an adult (most of the time), live an adult life, but I just don't feel it. That adultness. That knowing, authoritative grace that comes with wisdom, or age, or whatever it is that makes you a real adult. And, oh my gosh!, when I give one of my children direction, or advice, (or a good scolding), I am so glad they don't know what a fake I am. That they don't know I'm not a grown up at all; they are really only talking to just another child person!

So, I've been trying to figure out exactly how you know when you are really an adult, and here is my conclusion:

To begin with, I've always been a little slow. I don't mean physically slow, I mean, slow as in it takes me getting hit in the head with a coconut 39 times before I realize I'm standing under a coconut tree. And realizing that if I will only move over an inch or two, I won't keep getting knots on the head. This doesn't happen because I'm totally ignorant, it's just that between bonks on the head I get so busy with important things, I forget to think about the falling coconuts. But finally, when that 39th coconut drops and my head has become sore enough, it comes to the forefront of my thought that, oh yeah, I need to move from under this tree. So, I move over and all is well. I can now get back to my important things. And I think.... I think.... that you know you are an adult when you don't have to get hit on the head 39 times to know it's time for action. You know after the first coconut, or maybe the second - depending on just how adult you are. And - here is the important part - you realize that those important things you are so busy doing under the coconut tree - well, the coconuts - they are just as important. They are those nagging problems and bad habits that interfere in our living fully; those things we mean to tend to, but don't. The weeds in our garden of life, I suppose. But it is through working out the kinks in our life - pulling the weeds - that we give ourselves room to expand. That we become more than who we were yesterday. That we eventually grow into our true selves. And we become..... a real adult.