My Midlife 41st Manifesto

A specter is haunting Mapleton – a specter of middle-age.  How does it get here so fast?   To paraphrase Tevya ‘I don’t remember growing  older and when did my children become so tall.’  Life whisks by so fast and statistics say that I have just as many years behind me as ahead of me. Being a ‘glass is half-full’ kind of guy, that excites me of how much life I have ahead.

Admittedly, as a youth I wanted to charge forward into adulthood. Sure I enjoyed being a kid, but I was just as anxious to be an adult. I rushed through my undergraduate degree in exactly 4 years  -eight semesters- just like the curriculum plan recommended. From there, I jumped right into law school, three years, no breaks, internships every summer.  The day of my last law school final, as my classmates were discussing their plans to take the summer off in the Caribbean to study, I dropped my study binder in the trash, met my family in my packed car, and began driving out West to start my new job. I began work five days later, and other than the three weeks of being laid off, I have worked continuously since then.

Now I can’t complain, I've had some good jobs, a successful career which I enjoy.   I’ve traveled much and seen many amazing places in this world.  I have stopped to enjoy many sunrises and sunsets.  I've eaten fantastic food and made wonderful friends from all corners of the world. Still, with this full life, it passes by as if it were a dream.  My memories and my heart are full, but they seems to have filled so quickly. 

So with the recognition of how fast the sands of the hourglass do fall, I hereby declare my mid-life, 41^st manifesto:

• I will take time to feel more of the essence of life all around me.
• I will heed the counsel “slow down… It is not a race; it’s a journey.”
• I will not look past today in anticipation of something more exciting tomorrow.
• I will take more days off from work to work on being alive.
• I will share with my children what makes this life beautiful and how to live it.
• I will live by the precept “people die in bed. And so does ambition.”
• I will remember that if I sleep an hour less a day, I can add nearly one day per week of playtime.
• I will not look back on regrets or on my failures, but instead use them to guide my successes in the future.
• I will keep my body strong so that I can see more and do more; and when the time comes, I will kill over mid-stride.
• I will spend less time at my computer (and spell checking), wondering what the rest the world is doing, and instead spend more time doi…….

"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around for a while, you could miss it."