If you are older than 35, you’ve likely experienced a time or two when you realize you are aging. If you are older than 50, these moments are likely happening with increased and unsettling frequency.

Khaled Hosseini captured the stark realization of aging perfectly in And the Mountains Echoed. He wrote:

As they walk into the shop, Pari catches a glimpse of her reflection in the plate glass. Normally, especially of late, when she steps in front of a mirror an automatic mental process kicks into gear that prepares her to greet her older self. It buffers her, dulls the shock. But in the shopwindow, she has caught herself off guard, vulnerable to reality undistorted by self-delusion. She sees a middle-aged woman in a drab floppy blouse and beach skirt that doesn’t conceal quite enough of the saggy folds of skin over her kneecaps. The sun picks out the gray in her hair. And despite the eyeliner, and the lipstick that defines her lips, she has a face now that a passerby’s gaze will engage and then bounce from, as it would a street sign or a mailbox number. The moment is brief, barely enough for a flutter of the pulse but long enough for her illusory self to catch up with the reality of the woman gazing back from the shopwindow. It is a little devastating. This is what aging is, she thinks as she follows Isabelle into the store, these random unkind moments that catch you when you least expect them.

Yes, those “random unkind moments when you least expect them” are jolting. In your mind, you’re still that same kid that takes the steps two at a time. Hosseini exquisitely and empathetically describes the dissonance between the reality of aging and the youthful, albeit delusionary, self image that hasn’t quite caught up to the new evolving you. And that empathy is appreciated!