40 Days Til I Turn 40... What I've Learned

Last year, I started a separate blog called Surviving 39. I planned to journal throughout the year while discovering myself through relationships, exercise, spirituality and mental challenges, intending to strengthen my brain.

That lasted all of a few days.

Because around the same time, it occurred to me that everybody wanted something. When I reached out to a trainer to get in shape, he wanted 100 percent commitment. Certain relationships required more than I could give and those mental challenges? Classes and activities had expectations I couldn't live up to. Yet, at the same time, I still had three small children (with their own needs, school, 14 hours a week of therapy, etc.), a husband and a freelance career that also assumed my attention would remain undivided.

Everyone got a piece of me -- except me.

So I dropped that blog as quickly as I created it. I knew that in order to survive, something had to give. And why should it be my sanity?


So here I am, 40 days before I turn 40. Do I regret the past year? Hell no. I've actually been able to somehow find a little more balance, if not in my life, in my head.

Do I make time for me?

No.

Have I worked out and dropped the 15 pounds I gained?

Nope.

Do Jeff and I have regular date nights?

Not a chance.

Am I taking yoga, photography or dance classes?

Uh uh.

But I'm waking up with a fresh perspective and optimistic attitude every single day of my life. Something I had lost over the past few years.

To commemorate my upcoming monumental milestone, I present...

40 Lifetime Lessons Learned in 40 Years 


#40 Often times, breathtaking beauty is found not in the grand, long-planned occasions, but in those everyday, mundane moments.



As revealed in this ordinary tree that stops me in my tracks each morning as I back out of the driveway.