Turning 40

Turning 40 passes as just another day for some people. I've known a few folks who were like that. They didn't want any fanfare or a party or something. My close friend went to a luxurious, all-inclusive tropical resort for her 40th. That is really what I'd like to do...be away from the majority of the world with just my husband. The years are fleeting and it is just so clear that before long, it will be just 'us' again. I like to practice that coming reality ;).

I think milestones like turning 40 impact some of us harder than others for a few reasons. One is gender--women and men care about different things related to aging. The ages of one's children, if they have them, changes a person's perspective of turning 40. Parental life or death factors in, as well as one's position in their extended family.

Turning 40 with younger, healthy parents is one thing, but turning 40 with deceased parents is another matter. You just feel older in general when your parents are deceased. If you've passed out of the baby years with your kids, that is something else to make you feel older. Personal health challenges just compound it all. When we start to experience some of the physical problems that change our day-to-day living, it has an impact of making us see that the best physical years may be behind us. And when we are the youngest in our family and are hitting 40, it brings up the whole generation to 'middle aged'.

In spite of this, and my own struggles as I near 40, I'm thankful for where God has me in life. I wouldn't want to be younger and doing what I'm doing. It's just that it's taking me some time to stop missing my 30's and my babes being younger...it is hard to have less 'growing up' years to look forward to, and hard to realize that at this age my beloved and I are nearing, one of each of our parents only had 14 yrs of life left. I've been married longer than that...and those years, while just a number to anyone reading, encompass years of bliss that surpass anything anyone could have imagined when they saw my life prior to 1996.

I know there are loads of people who talk about how young 40 is; it is not that young. I've lived a lot of my life already. I pray God uses me more in the second half (hopefully I'll get at least as much time again on the 'other side' of the mountain).

And for the record, I really do want my old 'first car' again...a VW bug. A convertible sure would be fun, though I had a regular one...a 1973 113 Superbeetle in baby blue, 2 exhaust pipes. Ah. She was a beauty.