2018 is the year in which I turn 50 and celebrate 25 years of marriage. It is the year I will loose 50 pounds and I will try 50 things that I have never done before. It is a year to celebrate and a launch pad for the next 50 years (God-willing!)
I have no complaints about my first 50 years. I embrace it all – the victories and the defeats, the good hair choices and the bad, the wise choices and the poor. I just long, with a surprising intensity, for my next 50 years to be better than my first 50.
Less focused on me and more focused on others. Caring less about what others think and more about what pleases my Savior. Striving less for comfort and more for a life lived to the edge of all that I can be. Working harder to understand the viewpoint of others while becoming less rigid and certain about my own opinions.
I want to be more deliberate about the relationships in my life – old and new, family and friend, young and old. I want to surround myself with people of all ages who will open my eyes to their experiences and are willing to learn from mine. I want to pour into the life of the women who are younger than me and learn from the women who are older than I (Titus 2).
And I want always – and I mean always - to keep learning and growing and changing. Which brings me to the importance for all of us of trying and doing new things. For me, this year, that looks like a list compiled over the last couple of months of 50 things I have not done before. This is an important way for me personally to mark and celebrate turning 50.
It can be as simple as trying a new food, reading a new book or watching a new movie. The new things that you decide to try this year can stretch you physically – snowshoeing and cross-country skiing are on my list. It can stretch you mentally – taking a community ed class and learning to knit. It can stretch you spiritually – serving at Community Emergency Services and reading Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis.
Whatever you choose to do I encourage you to get out of your house and into the world. To get off of your screens (computer, TV and phone) and experience more face-to-face. To get out of whatever rut you may be in and experience new and different things this year. We only get once shot. What will you do this year with the one wild and wonderful life you have been given?
Precious Father – May we trust in you with all our heart and lean not on our own understanding. In all our ways may we acknowledge you so that you will direct our paths. (Proverbs 3:5-6.) Amen.