364 Days Until I’m 40
Today was my 39th birthday. I’m getting old, but I still feel young. I guess that is the good thing about perspective, you make life out of how you see it.
I try to be a true optimist. I sometimes fall off the wagon, and I sulk in the dirt with my wounded pride, but I eventually get back on.
As I look back over the last 39 years, I see many moments of blessings. I can reflect on moments of ruin, but drudging up old wounds of mistakes doesn’t cause me to smile. I haven’t erased those memories because they formed me into who I am. But I don’t regale in them either.
I prefer to remember the moments when I graduated college and I made it my mission to fly somewhere since I had never been on a plane before.
Or when I passed my CPA exam and was surrounded by my coworkers and family when I found out it was official. They knew before me and was planning to surprise me.
Or dreaming as a kid of places to travel and biting the bullet and traveling through Italy alone. There are so many places I have been that I would have never considered 10 years ago. And now I get to experience these memories with family. Whether it’s driving through Canada with my mom and dad, driving through Ireland with my niece, exploring Boston with my other niece, or gallivanting through Europe with my sister. Those memories surpass what I dared to dream.
Or jumping into writing and releasing my work for anyone to read. Scary, but oh so fulfilling. And the journey is just beginning. In the next year I plan to release at least 3 books. They are all written, just touching them up.
I feel blessed and my fulfillment meter is increasing.
Some people measure fulfillment in means of success. But success can be measured differently.
If money is your measurement, what level will make you feel successful? Mine is having what I need to make it through life. I don’t need fancy, flashy things to make me feel successful. I am blessed beyond measure.
If a relationship is your measurement, what level will make you feel successful? I don’t need a ring on my finger to tell me I’m loved. I may not have a romantic love, but I have different forms of relationships that pour into me and I pour into them. I am loved beyond measure.
If a legacy is your measurement, what level will make you feel successful? I don’t need an heir to carry down my name. Hopefully, my life and how I live will be my legacy. And after I’m gone, I’ll be forgotten like the majority of the world. And that is fine with me. I am known now by people I love beyond measure.
So, I’m not teetering on a verge of a meltdown or a midlife crisis. No. Even if I didn’t have all that I mentioned, I hope I could still say I was blessed beyond measure with the love and grace from God. I hope my love for Him could bring the fulfillment in life that I need to get through another year.
So here’s to everyone who faces their birthday with disdain – you are blessed. Here’s to everyone who faces their birthday with joy – you are also blessed.
If you don’t feel blessed…I would love to share with you the reason I feel blessed because it’s not because of what I have done, but because what He has.
So here’s to the next year. It’s going to be an incredible journey.
Peace
