Are You Where You Want to Be?

And … Will You Leave a Personal Legacy? 

[Note: You will have an opportunity to answer these questions in an essay. Everyone who enters will receive a free Lifetime Membership in the 39 and Holding Club! If already a member, designate a gift recipient. Read below for entry details.]

It’s been said many times, “we are not our parents’ grandparents.” Style, relevance, and most of all, ATTITUDE, define the current older generation – which is setting a Rock & Roll precedent for the future of society.

Moving into an unparalleled aging demographic, it’s the refusal to acknowledge sedentary “old age” that is also unique to this era of 40+ people.

If you are over forty and agree with those statements, take a moment to consider where you are in life. Introspection is frequent for those “of a certain age.” Lately I’ve been scratching my head, wondering what the hell was I thinking twenty, thirty years ago … how about you?

Not all people close to or already in retirement … OK, fewer than you might think … prepared for those once-called Golden Years. Even in a perfect scenario, it’s a daunting time as our lifestyles, minds and bodies undergo intense alterations. Add the Great Recession and it’s been pure, tarnished hell.

Life … Half-Full … Half-Empty … Half-A_ _ ed!

 Wow – three months to the day – sorry for such a delay in posts, but sometimes life is NOT “just a bowl of cherries.” [Anyone under 39 won’t know the significance of that statement. :-) ]

Yep, I’m wrestling with the pits. So this is going to be a short one.

I’m experiencing one of life’s many speed bumps and it’s a doozie. You know how the older we get the less we like change? And moving? Well that’s right up there with the taste of sour grapes. Or a twist of lemon. Or that over-ripe lime slice … hmmmmm, wonder if I have any Corona in the fridge?

Ummm, anyway … I’m packing my life away once again for another turning-me-on-my-head move. At my age, moving isn’t just a short interruption, it’s a back-breaking, joint-crunching, headache increasing, pain in the a _ _.

I know in a few weeks I’ll be settled “somewhere,” and I always find a measure of joy wherever I am. But THIS is the furthest from any vision I had of myself oh, so long ago, when stretching my 39-year-old mind to consider beyond middle age. How did I get here?!

Choices … we must live with the consequences of them, as well as those with exciting results. But much of my current angst is also thanks to our country’s misrepresented financial state of affairs, coupled with the debilitating recession/depression (my own interpretation).

New beginnings … I used that topic once for my most successful essay contest (I ran several in the ‘90s while heading a Southwest writers’ group). For most, the phrase elicits visions of hope … not necessarily true when facing (or surviving) drastic, life-changing events.

So wish me luck … through a veil of emotional and physical pain, I’m trying to view it optimistically and hope that the new life which awaits can be cheered, not with a glass half-empty, but one half-full that I can enjoy filling to the brim again. (Pass the Guinness!)

 

It isn’t an age … it’s an attitude!

Rock On!