Life After 40

I remember when my Mom turned 40.  I was in high school and worked for this balloon store in our small town.  We had one of those marquis signs that had a big flashing arrow where we would advertise our sales.  Well, clever me, I was given permission to display my Mom's age for the entire town to see.  I remember thinking, that woman is OLD!!!  I could not wrap my mind around being 40!  I was a pup at the age of 16 years old!  It was too much to think about the year 2008 and turning 40!

Now that I am 41 working my way towards 42, I realize that Mom wasn't so old.  It was her children that made her old!  She had three of us and to this day, I don't know why the woman is not in an insane asylum!  I'm only raising one and there are days I pray to be put away just for some much needed rest!

Looking back on my adult life, I can see now how much time was wasted on petty things.  When you are in your 20's, you think that you are invincible and will live forever!  Life moves fast and so do you!  ONLY because your body still allows you to move quickly!  Then came the dreaded 30 somethings.  BLAH!!!!  I cried so hard the day I turned 30!  My life was over!  I knew I would wake up and sprout grey hair, that I would have to trade the sports car in for a minivan and I would have to cut off all of my hair!  According to Nana, women of a certain age should not have long hair.  It is unbecoming of a cultured lady.  Well, I didn't get any grey hair and  I continued to drive a Firebird but I did cut my hair off because I had a baby hanging from it! 

Now that 40 has come and I'm into those "older" years, I have finally begun to be comfortable in my own skin.  So what if I found a gray hair!  I earned it!  So what if I drive a PT Cruiser!  It's still a little sporty, dontcha think?  So what if I decided that I want "stripper" hair and my hair has grown to the middle of my back!  I LIKE IT PEOPLE!!!  That is what 40 is!  It's all of a sudden what YOU like!  I'm not in my 20's and I will not ever have my pre-baby body back!  SO WHAT!!!  I like to eat a cheeseburger at least once a week! SO WHAT!!! (except that now my cholesterol is screaming for reprieve!).  I like my long, color-treated hair! SO WHAT!!!  I get compliments!  My husband loves me with or without the lights on!  He loves me for who I am and not what I am!  40 allows me to accept and truly believe that!  It's liberating to be so free!  I just wish I had been that knowing and comfortable when I was 20.  My life choices would have been a bit different! 

I am who I am and that's all that I am!  God loves me, my husband loves me, my child loves me (most days) and my true friends love me!  Life after 40 is GREAT!!!