At Forty…

Let’s be honest. As our birthdays approach faster & faster throughout the years, they bring a range of emotions that might look a bit like a heart rate – up & down, up & down. Though depending on your attitude, you might hear the music behind that beat!

As my B I G 4 O approaches, I find myself listening to the music from my almost forty-year-old library because when I was young, I truly expected forty to behave that “over the hill” feeling or maybe even “life is over at forty” feeling. For me, thirty was much harder. The music I hear today reflects acceptance, adventure, authenticity, change, gratitude, kindness, love, and an abundance of memories! Maybe I see the glass half-full, as compared to thirty I saw the glass half-empty. It doesn’t really matter. I’m here. I survived the last decade, and I have a boatload of experience, wisdom, and memories to prove it.

I am looking at 40 as 4 perfect 10’s because though there may be a lot of difference between twenty & forty, some things that are the same-same-but-different. So, if you’re about to hit this milestone, as I will in a week, think about some facts that are resonating with me.

1. At forty, I still cherish memories as if I was creating a high school yearbook, but at forty, that yearbook is in pieces. The memories are spread throughout drawers & boxes because I printed pictures, I saved a magazine clipping, but I no longer have time to even put them in one place, much less find time to put them in a photo album or a scrapbook.

2. At forty, I still dream like nothing can stop me, but at forty, I dream for others more than myself.

3. At forty, I still think of others, but at forty, the handwritten note that I wrote them is found under a pile of mail that was misplaced and might never make it to the mailbox, much less get handed to them.

4. At forty, I still look at my surroundings trying to notice the beauty in this world, but at forty, my goggles are forty years old. I see with more clarity. At forty (not at thirty), I love swapping my forty-something goggles for toddler goggles.

5. At forty, I still say I am sorry, but at forty, I don’t wait for perfect timing.

6. At forty, I still get disappointed, but at forty, I seek God’s wisdom & comfort, rather than justice.