In a little over two weeks I will be 50. I’ve already started saying I’m 50 a couple months ago because when it comes to the actual day, the hope is I will embrace the fact that I am half a century old. Crazy how fast that happened!
It seemed only four or five years ago I threw my 40th birthday bash (which by the way was so much fun). Where did the last five or six years go? Thinking back over the last ten years I guess I was kinda busy. In fact so much so that I can’t even keep track of all that I’ve done and achieved. I should have kept my LinkedIn profile updated. I suppose if I really need to know I can just Google myself.
The universe has been pretty decent to me over the last decade because at now 50 I’m healthy (kinda fit but not really), working in a profession I love (some days are better than others), still fairly enthusiastic about life and happily married (again some days are better than others). One of the great ways to really have a sense of how things are going is by the people in your circle supporting you. Oh and apparently your resting heart rate. Yes, go ahead check it now.
I am fortunate to have some strong women in my life as friends. They inspire and push me to do better and be better. I also have some men in my life that cheer me on. My husband is one of them but he does it with caution. I am the risk-taker and he is the slow-and-steady-wins-the-race kinda guy. It generally works as I bounce everything off of him before I spring my ideas into action. Some of them tend to throw his blood pressure into a tizzy, but I assure him it will all work out.
We have these little “meetings” (what I like to call them) usually at a pub during a happy hour. You’d surprised how many grand plans, problem-solving strategies and decisions were conjured after a couple pints. I think we may have booked Vegas trips like 10 times in a bar on our apps. So far no regrets. I can see us continuing this activity well past 70!
I will say the hardest part for me about this whole 50 thing is the loss of collagen. Yep, the sagging skin and wrinkles. The dry, cold Saskatchewan winters aren’t helping either; some days my body looks like it’s covered in elephant hide. And thanks Zoom for revealing all those folds around my neck I didn’t notice before. I know it sounds vain but the truth is my mind, attitude, and energy is still at 30. So what I see in the mirror doesn’t match with how I feel. I’m only five years from the senior discount so I guess I need to just get over it. But I am still wearing those orange stilettoes (whether it’s appropriate or not)!
Over the last 50 years I would say it was the past 10 where I learned most about myself. Here are a few things:
When someone underestimates me I work hard to prove them wrong. When someone overestimates me, I work harder to prove them right.
I am so open to a difference of opinion that I may look like I’m accepting of it and taking it as my own, when really I’m only considering it or trying to find common ground.
I don’t get into battles where there is nothing to gain, even if my ego has to take a hit.
I am more about vision than the money.
I try to mix fun into everything. I procrastinate if it’s going to be boring.
I’m a fixer of things. I often say, “I’ll deal with it”.
I thrive under pressure even though I hate it. But do I really hate it? Because I keep taking on bigger and bigger challenges.
I was always meant to be a mother. That is role number one.
I find beauty in everything, even on the most God-awful darkest of days I can still give thanks.
We all have something to share that will give value to other people’s lives. Often it’s our stories of overcoming pain, loss and suffering. I love hearing people’s stories. They inspire me.
I feel at my best when I am on top of things.
My last 50 years hasn’t been without its heartache and disappointments but I have to say I have more to celebrate than to complain about. I’m feeling optimistic about this whole 50 thing. I think life is only going to get better. Hell, I’m closer to retirement than I was at 40. So HELLO 50!! I’m gonna roll into the second half of the century with a pop of some champagne and a little partying up (of whatever we are to do allowed these days).
Also in celebration of my 50th birthday is my new release of Diamond in the Rough, Agents of Angels Book One. It is a Young Adult dark fantasy series with the heroine being a kick-ass half-angel teen with a bad attitude who needs to confront her own demons before she can fight the real ones hunting her and her friends. It is Constantine meets Shadow Hunters. Book Two of the trilogy is coming out later this summer! #AgentsofAngels
I say that calls for another bottle of bubbly! Cheers (as I swig from the bottle)!
