My Wonderful Middle-Aged World

When I was a young girl growing up, "middle age" was a dirty word. It evoked vague images of saggy tired men and women going nowhere but downhill. It was associated with menopause and mid-life crises, things best ignored. Of course, being the self-obsessed youngster that I was, I never thought middle age would happen to me. It did! And not only that, it happened to my world, to people I knew, acquaintances from work, schoolmates, neighbors, and friends. One day, my world turned middle aged, and believe it or not, it's surprisingly cool!

In my middle-aged world, young women who used to be all about clothes, boyfriends and hair styles, are now focused on making the world a better place. People who used to bicker and compete for attention and affection of bosses and peers have now directed their attention to helping others. The disgruntled are now inspired; the self obsessed spiritual. Many are committed to activities they have mastered after years of practice- some run, some cycle, some sculpt their bodies by exercise, some take amazing pictures, some dance, some cook, some write, some grow things, some teach! Some brave ones have left the corporate world to follow their hearts. Many are mothers and fathers of teens, something that humbles the most arrogant and sensitizes the most insensitive of us. They have opinions, not the second-hand shallow ones, but those backed by personal life experiences. Even the prima donnas show amazing depth- life deals its blows to all evenly if you just give it enough time, and then it hands you two fantastic medicines for healing- reflection and fortitude.

If this is what middle age is about, then I will gladly exchange my giddy foolish youth for it. If saggy skin is the prerequisite to feeling comfortable in one's skin, then I will happily wibble wobble. If this is what going downhill looks like, then show me the way to the valley baby! 

Cartoon from: http://jokideo.com/middle-age-that-time-you-get-your-head-together/