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I find myself contemplating the cycles of life a lot these days. I find myself contemplating the passage of time, the stages of our lives.

Some I once knew were married at eighteen, their eldest was married at eighteen too, and already they’re grandparents to eight year-olds.

I was married at twenty-four. Had we been blessed with children in those early days, our eldest might have been twenty by now. Of course, it was not to be: we had our tests and trials.

But even then, some my age are only just married, only now starting families. By the time their eldest reaches university, they will be reaching retirement age, and those I once knew will be great-grandparents.

Of course, at my age, my own parents still had their youngest kids to contend with: my sister and I. And true, some of those I once knew who were married at eighteen are still raising their first generation.

Some have seen their first child graduate university and enter the world of work, while their youngest plods on through GCSEs. We’re all on different tracks, like planets swimming in an orbit of their own around the sun.

The different lives we live: so extraordinary. How crazy to discover: suddenly we’re old.