LIFE TRANSITIONSIt's hard to believe where I am today. I don't mean where I am physically located on 09/09/09, but where I am in the course of my life. At age 42 I'm faced with one of the big transitions in life. I'm officially "middle-aged." I'm facing the trials that people my age face. The "empty nest" as the kids move on with their lives. The aches and pains that remind me of my ever increasing limitations. The strain I put my eyes through because I'm too stubborn to go to the eye doctor for glasses.
Maybe I'm putting too much thought into this. But, as I walked this morning and looked at the leaves changing on the trees around the house I began to really contemplate the changes taking place in my life. I think that I can understand a little bit better why some men seem to "twist off" and start racing around in sports cars and chasing after women twenty years younger than they are. I can see how this transition point in life could bring an overwhelming sense of disatisfaction and loss into a fella's life.
Life offers us many transition points.
- First day of School
- Changing grades
- Starting that First Job
- Getting that Driver's License
- Your First Date
- Graduation Day
- Wedding Day
- Birth of your first child
- Your child's first day of school
And so the cycle goes. You watch your child going through all those transition points as they grow and remember with joy, and perhaps some saddness, those moments in your life. There are major transitions and minor transitions, but all of them carry with them the risk of hurt and the potential for reward. Each threshold of change in the course of life challenges us and calls us onward, and we are faced with the temptation--particularly at the transition point where I find myself today--to run back to earlier days and flee the reality of where we find ourself. Hence the sports cars and younger women.
The past few weeks I have been scanning photographs from my younger years into my computer. That's been a bitter-sweet experience. I love looking at the pictures of Andie and me during our dating and early married years. (You can find most of these pictures on my FACEBOOK page) At the same time it seems like I just blinked and woosh time zipped past. These transitions of life don't often come with grace and gentleness...instead it's like the unexpected shove that throws you into the lake. And there you are, stepping through the portal into another life stage. So, the choice is to embrace it...or try in vain to live in denial of it.
The other day I was heading to pick up my best friend and life partner, who after twenty one years of marriage and twenty four years together still gets my heart racing. On the way there I noticed a jet black mint Corvette for sale on the side of the road...I slowed down for a moment to give it the once over...then I just drove on past. I had better things awaiting me.
Your Fellow Traveler on Life's Journey - DB
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