In Her Words

"Wake up, Life's Half Over"

Reinventing life at the midpoint

By: Mary Beth Sammons

"Wake up, life's half over!"

Those are the words, delivered in a passionate coaching/military sergeant-esque way each Friday morning at 6 a.m. from my Spin teacher. You have to love the guy ... he keeps you Spinning, even if it is challenging.

For the last year, since I plunged into this whole exercise/fitness/wellness mode, I have paid serious attention to his words. I'm not doing this just to make my legs spin faster and harder on the bike, but to make sure that every day I am alive I am living, striving faster and harder so that I can be healthy enough to spend time with the people I love and less time doing the things that are rote, just to stay on the work/must-do treadmill.

These days, the words "Wake up, life's half over" have a deep meaning for me.

I just turned 50.

Everywhere I go I am reminded of it. The AARP card that arrived in my mailbox. The poster of a bunch of gray-haired people around my mom's age on a poster in my bank's lobby, titled "50 and Better," and a note from an editor at the business publication where I used to be an editor, announcing that they are changing their annual "40 Under 40" achieving businessfolk award to "50 Over 50." When we got our new puppy, Bailey, my eldest daughter turned to me and said "Mom, this is kind of like what it is going to be to become a grandma."

Ugh.  read more...

Is 50 the new 40? Is 40 the new 30?