"Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Paul to the persecuted at Philippi (2:5-11)

18 January 2014

On Being 40.

Last year, my motto became "Embrace the 40."  Too many people freak out about turning 40, when really its just a day older than 39.  We age one day at a time, whether we like it, notice it, try to hide from it, or not. 

So I embraced the 40.  I rounded my age up for the most of the year, if only in my head.  Calling myself 40 before I really was disarmed the label. 

And having visited Korea last year, I was, briefly (by Korean reckoning) 41.  Why should 40 be a big deal this year if only last year I was 41?  (Koreans reckon age starting at 1 and adding a year for each Korean new year you've lived through, so technically I turned two (Korean) when I was just a few days (American) old. So there!)

And so I woke up on the morning of my rather bland birthday feeling boringly the same as I'd felt the night before.  Significantly older than fifteen, not much older than thirtysomething.  Fine.  I'd rather not be fifteen again anyway.  I can drive a car now and have visited a handful of foreign countries and can enjoy an occasional glass of wine and have these neat kids in my life.  Much better than fifteen when I was the kid.  Also fine.

And I went to bed that night feeling the same but with one blessed change.  I no longer had to worry about someone doing something mortifyingly embarrassing to my introverted self in attempt to "celebrate" my supposed milestone birthday.  I find the birthday song embarrassing, God knows I'd curl up and die if someone took out one of those idiotic billboards.  Now I no longer have to look forward to what idiocy my fortieth birthday may bring.  Bullet dodged.  Very fine.

So I'm now 40.  No I won't tell you when that happened.  I still have a bullet to dodge at fifty and I'll keep my cards close while I can.  I have a few grey hairs, well more like white, but I prefer to call them sliver.  My skin gets drier in the winter.  I can't eat just anything like I used to (although remarkably I'm not interested in eating some of the things I used to... a whole pizza? Yuck.  Cake? no thanks, I don't care for that much any more.  Soda?  Kind of tickles my throat now that I don't drink it regularly any more.)  But to those of you who haven't tried it yet, 40 isn't so bad.

Embrace it. 

And if all else fails, go to Korea when you're 39.  Worked for me.
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