Sleeping in, reading a good book, and having breakfast in bed are just a few of the perks when its your birthday in our home. Celebrations around the table are of course center stage, while sending gratitude up for the blessings that have come our way.
Today it was my hubs celebration of life. Feeling like there is so much more to come and to do, we talked about our dreams and perspective on the journey thus far. Midlife is a strange thing, dreams are more philosophically based and the fast lane no longer has the same appeal when now you can downshift and enjoy the view on the way to your deeply rooted goals. No tolerance for nonsense or the negative nellies in your life. A freedom is born that the twenty and thirty somethings just rarely posses.
I remember an elder in my life once joking that you spend the first half of your life accumulating your stuff and the second half getting rid of it! Just imagine if in the youth of embarking on our twenties we could really understand this reality and did not spend time looking behind us or around us to find our meaning and identity, or throwing on resources on things that would hold little meaning for us in a few years. If instead we took the approach of the wise ones, you know the neighbor next door who volunteers at the hospital, or the woman at the park on the bench feeding the birds as we jog past, or perhaps the uncle who comes to visit and always has time for a game of checkers with your kids. Yes these are the blessed for they know it is in the moment, unencumbered by things and others expectations, that the true magic of life unfolds in the moment.
They say this new generation that has been born will live until 100. I say look around, many of us in our generations will be here at 100. So, 50 is the new 25! What are you going to do with it? The new dawn is just breaking over the horizon and you have the freedom to choose differently this time, what will you make of your the next 50 years? Don't make a list in your mind of all the things that can go wrong, instead embrace that fact that you have the gift to dream! If you have limits, well work with them. Show me a 20 year old that does not have a list of limits: no money, competition for jobs, acne, insecurity of image, etc., etc, etc! They dream and then take a step towards those dreams. So it is with any age. Don't allow the barriers of mental or physical fears keep you from your dreams. Imagine, 50 more years is a long time and you can spend it rocking in a chair or changing the world. Whether it is a innovation that rocks the world or it is a first grader you are helping learn to read and open up their world, dream!
Purpose and dreams...the secret elixir to a long and healthy life!
Enjoy some Vanilla Cider with a wise one in your life. Let them share their story. You will be humbled and amazed at the wealth of fascinating experience dwelling in each one of them.
1 quart fresh apple cider
1 tsp brown sugar
1 vanilla bean, split and scraped
1 whole nutmeg
Put all ingredients in a pot and simmer. Remove vanilla bean and nutmeg, serve hot with a cinnamon stick.
~ Come Gather Around The Table!
