I woke up this morning to a pimple and my period. What am I? Sixteen?
No.
As a matter of fact... I'm FORTY!!!
Being 40 is such an abstract idea for me. I do feel different than I did in my 20's or early 30's. I feel more confident, less concerned with fitting in, more comfortable with admitting when I don't know or understand something. And I guess those are things that come with "age". But somehow, that still doesn't translate to me as "getting older". I'm convinced not having kids plays a big part in not being able to track the passage of time. My life today is really not that different from what it was 5 or 10 or 15 years ago. Little Johnny hasn't gone from diapers to high school, so I can look around and everything seems much the same as it's always been.
I made a list yesterday of all the stuff that happened in my 30's. There were some pretty consequential things on it. Moved to a new country. Got married. Dad died. Bobby died. Became a Graphic Artist. Started practicing yoga. I don't know how much longer David and I will live here, but I think I will always look back on my 30's as "the decade I lived in the South". Or maybe, "the decade I came to terms with living in the South". In any case, making that list reminded me that life takes some planning. That if you just sit back and let it happen, well you are just a cork bobbing along in the current. So I've been inspired to actually set some goals for this next decade. Something I have never done before. My first goal is to sit down and think about what those goals might be! What do I want on the list I will write 10 years from today?
I'll keep you posted.
I've had a nice day so far :-) David took me out for pancakes this morning, then I did some grocery shopping at WholeFoods, watched an episode of What Not To Wear, opened the presents that arrived in the mail earlier this week, wandered downtown to check out two art galleries for inspiration, and now am sitting having my Earl Grey with Jimmy snoozing at my feet and a nice breeze coming in the window.
And that's not a bad list either.
