Reflections at 40!

Julie and Jenny - Bus Ride to NYC (10-16-2010)

I have to admit that it has been a long year leading up to my 40th birthday this weekend. I have thought long and hard about how I imagined my life would be, how it truly is and what more I may want in the future. Here are just of few of my thoughts about what it means to be 40. So here it goes…

40 means:

•    Having three beautiful, funny, smart, healthy children
•    A husband who I have to beg at this point to treat me like his girlfriend after 13 years, but whom I love, love, love and respect.
•    A twin sister who I talk to five times a day with every minute detail of my life
•    A best friend of almost 30 years who continues to believe in me and love me unconditionally
•    A school community of friends, family and teachers who support me on a daily basis with such care and thoughtfulness
•    Being able to listen to music and actually relate to every lyric with some personal experience, good and bad
•    Being commander of my life
•    Having a job that fulfills me and gives me purpose in ways that my children and family cannot
•    Having the means to do, buy and say whatever I want, whenever I want
•    Pick and choose the relationships in my life that bring meaning without draining me to the core
•    Gaining and losing 10 pounds yet still feeling good about my body
•    Having the desire to make my life the best it can be…before its over
•    Taking time for myself because I deserve it
•    Having perspective that allows me to weed out the good, the bad and the unnecessary stress in my life
•    Feeling good about who I have become and where I am going regardless of what anyone else says or thinks.

And those are just a few of things that I have contemplated over the last few months leading up to my 40th birthday. It really does feel like a brand new start to my life. I want the next 40 years to be filled with all the things I wished for in the first forty but didn’t know how to get them. I feel strong, I feel empowered, and I feel ready for the future.

I am blessed to have all that I have at 40 and so grateful to the people in my life (you KNOW who you are) and to God for giving me the strength to see this day. THANK YOU!