Listen! What do you hear? It might be birdsong, kids playing on the street, roosters crowing or the ice cream vendor.

Those harbingers of the rainy season to come, the cicada beetles, known locally as “rain birds,” are rising from their 17-year rest, climbing through leafy trees and “singing” their good tidings with their unique twittering sound made from pushing air through their abdominal cavities (or something like that).

It’s been clear for a while that time is passing at a dizzying speed. It started when I received my first issue of a retirement magazine on my 55th birthday. It was something of a blow when I was lumped into the same demographics as my father in life insurance commercials and eventually I realized that my dentist and doctors were all younger than I was – never mind the president of the United States and my university alma mater.