Goodbye, Old Friend - Goodbye!

When I was fifteen, someone told me that if you hang your face over a mirror you can tell what you are going to look like in 10 years. Sit in a chair, hold the mirror in your lap, and bend over until you can see your face in it. About every 10 years, I give this another go. Actually, it has turned out to be a pretty accurate method. (Note: It doesn’t work with your breasts, only your face).

But today, I’m looking back, not forward. As I pause in the middle of this road, I cast a wistful glance over my shoulder at my forties, which are all but behind me. I love you, my 40s! You have given me so much and I’m sad to leave you!

Some decades haven't been that way for me. I kicked my 20s to the curb without so much as a by your leave. My 30s are cloudy and muddled, and chock full of turmoil. But in my 40s I came into my own. My words and my opinion seemed to suddenly carry more weight once I passed 40, I think. And it is still sexy. 40 is the new 30!

My forties were also a catch-up decade for me in terms of things I feel I should have known or realized much earlier. For one thing, I finally got breasts in my 40s. Who knew? Who could have predicted this interesting “development?” And in my forties, some things I learned better late than never. I had to reach my 40s to find out things like:

All the major north-south highways are odd-numbered and all the east-west ones are even-numbered.

Most women dye their hair to get that color – even the young ones

How to eat to “peel and eat” shrimp

You really do have to try clothes on before you buy them, because you can never, ever know how they will fit.

With 100% certainty how to spell “wiener” and “weird” without spell-checking

That you should buy yourself really nice quality socks (I just learned this one)

How I wish that I had written them all down so I could list them now. Of course my 40s also brought to my attention the importance of finding your truth, whatever it is, and standing up in it. I became aware of the lovely concepts of the authentic self, and synchronicity. It is in my 40s that the Bubble of Love was born in my brain.

I learned that I always need a creative outlet, just like I need oxygen.

I learned I am not materialistic but I love clothes and SHOES, and I don’t feel guilty about it.

I discovered the importance of down time. …………........


So I don’t want to leave my 40s, but the road takes me forward, away away away from them.

Today I honor my forties, for all that they have given me. Fifties – you have a lot to live up to.