I've experienced that I'm calmer, more harmonic, more at ease and more content after 40.
I'm also even more intensely present in every moment and every day, than I ever was before. And I was kind of known for being so good at being present, even before.
I think it has got something to do with death!
At twenty I thought life would go on for ever, it was so vast it seemed like what was going on then, would go on forever. At forty you darn well know it's not like that. What goes on will pass, quickly, and be replaced with something else, yet unknown. Times will change, relationships will change, jobs, friends, houses, seasons, dreams - it all changes and the older you get, the faster change comes.
Toddlers turn into little kids, little kids turn into teenagers and teenagers turn into adults.
Gorgeous ones, but still.... Adults.
Sometimes you'll see an old coupe holding hands, looking at each other smiling in a way you know that only the two of them understand the meaning of. They may have been a couple for fifty years. You can see love, playfulness and understanding and at those times I really feel that I GET it, the aging thing. Elderly aren't just elderly - they're toddlers, gone teenagers, gone adults.... adults for a long time wrinkling them a little bit more. That's it.
And it happens fast.
All these realizations is what I think forty is about. Getting these things and realizing I need to do what I need to do! Not what other people think I need to do or need to want but what I think.
There are lots of things to check off that list.
The liberating thing about it all is that when you stop worrying about what others may think, you make room for effort towards what it is that you want to do.
Worrying takes time - time you don't have if you're forty ;-)
So, for me it's all about saving money for experiences I want to have, travels I want to make, seeing friends I want to see and those obvious things like enjoying splendid foods with loved ones, feeling the summer breeze by the beach and laughing, doing so.
BBQ:ed salmon, tsatziki, tomatoes, garlic, red wine, ice cold water, the waves of the ocean, the white fine sand, seagulls....
I love it.
A very well behaved dog, that eats his smoked fish with a fork!
I love that man. He has been patient and always loving.
Love birds.
Love sheep!
Love life!!
A husband in the evening sun.
Ice cream is gooooood!
"A moment in time".
Cute dirty feet...
That evening sun!
A square ocean.
Laughing at his own sticky chocolate face!
<3
<3 <3 <3
To love. To live.
And there it is: living in the moment and loving the moments that are special. Seeing them, feeling them and letting them fill you with happiness and harmony. To be open to that. During some periods it's really easy and during other periods it's harder, it seems.
A new week is coming up, folks. Enjoy the moments that count.
I will.
