Old and Dried UP . . . or NOT?

Today, I totally had a-ha! moment.

I was watching this movie (Miss Potter--utterly delightful if you haven't seen it) and in the end, this woman gets married at the ancient age of 40! I was horrified. That's too old. You're all dried up. You're an old woman by then. Poor her! Old old OLD her.

And then . . . I realized . . .Uh, tomorrow I turn 41.

And I don't think I'm dried up at all. I think I'm . . . pretty much awesome. I am not OLD!

Am I . . . ?

I had to stop and just laugh at myself. All my life I really thought LIFE ended at 40. What good were you after that? You didn't have babies anymore (not true, but my young brain was convinced of this), you weren't sexy, cute, or anything awesome. 40 on up you were saggy old ladies who wore ugly bathing suits, sexless pants, and loved to chat on the couch/porch/pool/beach instead of getting out there and DOING stuff.

In short . . . 40 was the beginning of the end.

Yep.

I.

Was.

Am.

An.

Idiot.

Because I'm being honest here, I think life STARTS at 40. Best year of my life by far . . . far far!

I really don't care if my hair is going sixteen different directions or if I'm in sweats all day, it's how I roll. There are good days, but most are just meh and that's OK. I don't even sweat it if I have 8 bad days in a row because I KNOW that I'll have a good one pop in there sometime.

I don't expect things to go according to plan . . . ever! If I get one . . . just one thing on my list done each day, I am in HEAVEN! And if not . . . no worries, another day is just around the corner.

Yeah, I like to sit on the beach and chat because my heck, I've made breakfast lunch and dinner and cleaned up 18 messes and sun screened 400 children and packed snacks and set up umbrellas and made sure that everyone was safe . . . Yes indeed I am going to sit my fanny down. And yeah, maybe it's in a comfy swimming suit, but trust me, after years of squeezing/dieting my way into the perfect suits, I'm so so happy to be in something that FITS and feels good. (I promise, I try to make it at least a little cute, but A #1 priority is COMFORT).

And maybe that's why this year has been the best yet . . . COMFORT rules my life. If it doesn't fit just right, there is no way I'm buying it. If I don't like it--I don't read it, watch it, or discuss it. My friend Nancy once said, When you're in your 40's you start to realize you've only got so many hours/days left in your life . . . and you want to make sure you spend them on things you really want to do/eat/see/hear/ be. I'm so there and she's 100% right. I see my hours dwindling and I don't want to waste another minute of them doing things that don't feed me, bring me peace, or help me see the world better (or make my family/friends/neighbors/people I love happier).

Thanks to yoga and TIME, I actually am stronger than I've ever been in my life. But I'm also not so insane about working out. If I get 10 minutes of something in a day, I call it good (and we're talking walking up to get the mail and back). If it's in the cards, awesome. If not, oh well. Again . . . there's always tomorrow.

So is this what growing up is all about?

Learning patience and perspective and how to chill out? Realizing that there is always tomorrow and it's OK if things don't go according to plan . . . ?

I think so . . .

And to it's TOTALLY AWESOME!

40 . . . it's when life STARTS. For real.

Sorry all you youngsters. You've got a few years, but it's totally worth the wait. You'll see . . .

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