Your title had me wondering if you were talking about the old people musty odor.
Seriously, you are beginning to experience a normal thing that occurs when you age. The older you get you will find that much of what you thought was important no longer has a grasp on you. The upside of that is you will begin to notice that simple things you did not pay attention to, start to give you pleasure.
In younger days I was into contact sports like sand lot football, basketball, softball and the like. I hunted small and large game. I had toys like street motorcycles and dirt bikes and snowmobiles. I was very particular about clothing and partying, and working at the job was working at it rather than playing at it.
Now I'm not saying that you find that you don't do any of the things that took up a lot of your time and attention, it's just that they won't occupy the level of importance that they did. All of a sudden you'll find yourself being quieter in your mind. Contentment starts to replace the elusive and sometimes frantic search for happiness. (define happiness, for me. It's like "fairness", it really can't be defined as one man's castle may be another's prison.) Relationships begin to change in subtle ways. You find that all that wisdom you thought you had was only ego, and you start to chuckle at watching those younger than you make the same mistakes you did, or think they have a handle on a thing you know won't work because you discovered otherwise. You will begin to grin over things that used to cause anger and frustration. You will also walk around things that you used to jump over.
You'll begin to see that little things that you never paid any attention to in the past start to cause you to pause and smile and maybe cause a deep breath and a moment of null. Each of the seasons, as they change, offer smells and sights and sounds that bring contentment. Listening to birds and watching the trees bud and then leaf and then fall or see the ferns take over the ground in an oak forest, or waiting for dogwoods to bloom in the stark late winter woods, or the earthy smell of the soil on a warm spring morning as the worms begin to turn the dirt under the grass, or see the mist on the lake on a quiet fall morning. In the deep darkness of the late night, if you are around water, you will hear ducks talking to each other in the spring and fall, and hear the mysterious groaning and booming of the winter lake as it makes ice. Or you hear the wooshing of a neighbors furnace exhaust on a crisp and cold and quiet star filled night. As you gaze upwards you become humbled by the magnificent size of the starry night and wonder at the arrogance of humans who believe they are the masters of that universe.
As you age you come to appreciate that you are nearer to the final chapter of your life and somehow that doesn't bring the sadness that maybe you might think...just the contentment you stumbled upon after realizing that seeking happiness is only another chore that in the seeking only brings uncertainty and angst. You understand that being older is much better than being younger. Your horizons are wider and deeper and that is surprising and comforting...
