“The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are all over His works.” (Ps. 145:9 NKJV) Forty! Really? I read somewhere that your forties are a unique season wherein you are no longer young but not yet old. I’m finding this a bizarre reality. This birthday milestone gave me a violent push into reminiscing about…
“Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.” (Isa. 46:4 NIV) I was fourteen the first time I dyed my hair. At that young age, I wasn’t…
This month I turn forty. I’ve never been one to care much about my age. I suspect that got filtered out early on, when the lunch ladies at school mistook me for a teacher (no-I-do-not-want-to-pay-the-staff-price-thank-you-very-much-I’m-sixteen) or “carded” me for the student discount at movies because they couldn’t believe I wasn’t a full-fledged adult. Fast-forward to…
I may be a little too sensitive about this, but I don’t like people making assumptions about me based on my perceived age. I’ve experienced others’ faulty perceptions about me because of how old I look, even beyond the fact that clerks no longer ask if I qualify for a senior discount; they just give…
Twenty years ago, when I imagined myself mid-life, I curated a mental list of the things I imagined myself doing. I expected my forties to be busy, bustling with action. I hoped for a full family life and strength to check boxes on important lists all day long. I hoped to maintain a sense of…
My long-time friend and I are having dinner. We’re two women of a certain age, efficiently and politely served by a woman at least a couple of decades younger. People in our decade are rarely in her position, it seems. On most of our mealtime outings, the wait staff are young enough to be our…