At first earlier in the year, a couple friends hit the big marker quietly and randomly. But with this past weekend's party for one of my best friends, my group of friends has begun sliding down the slippery slope in earnest. Two more friends are hitting fifty in November and three in December. Hold on, folks, we're FRIENDS FACING FIFTY in a big way - we're all in!
My girlfriend, the class clown, the one so much fun to be around, says fifty's not sitting well. She can't quite get her head around it.
On her cake, we wrote "Fit, Fabulous & 50." And she is. She's a do-er; she exercises regularly and has the endurance of a mule - she can ride a bike forever! She is independent and capable of anything. She has a wonderful family and girlfriends who have been at her side since she was a pre-teen. She has worked at her job for over 25 years, no small feat -- again the endurance of a mule! Not everyone is so blessed as they hit the half-century marker, but she's earned it.
And her gift to herself for turning 50 is a trip to France! To France! How cool is that? We couldn't have, or wouldn't have, done that at thirty or thirty-five. But at fifty, if we want to do it, man, we're actually doing it! That in itself is worth the marker.
I'm hearing friends say why hitting fifty is bothering us; it's a lot of things. Mortality seems to be the biggie - we're more than half way through our lives. Maybe we look too old; maybe we feel it. Maybe we're sad the kids are moving out and don't want change or maybe just the opposite - we're anxious for them to go because we're tired and ready for change. Maybe we've not done what we hoped to by fifty; maybe we fear the good years are past. At fifty, forty is sounding OK...when at forty, that was hard, too, but fifty seems to be a whole new ballpark.
Pooey! We've got to let all this go! We have absolutely no control over this and we should be proud of all we've done in our first fifty years because we've sure done a lot! I'm going to try to hold my head up and take the lead of "living the I's" I read in Patti Digh's book, Life is a Verb, for how I should carry myself from here. Being thankful for every day, doing what we want to do, and finding joy in the small things are the way for us to live.
Patti said, "It turned out there were six main ingredients for the fuller, richer life, all starting with the letter I, just as all change starts with I, the individual. For each of the six practices that emerged, simple actions stood out:
Intensity: Say yes
Inclusion: Be generous
Integrity: Speak up
Intimacy: Love more
Intuition: Trust yourself
Intention: Slow down"
*Source: Digh, Patti. Life is a Verb. Guilford, Connecticut: skirt! The Globe Pequot Press, 2008. Print. P. 8
www.lifeisaverb.net
www.pattidigh.com
Photo: Not Mexico, but Rangeley, Maine...finding joy wherever!
