On the Other Side…and Enjoying It!

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I’m on the other-side of “middle age”…at least literally.  This past year, I enjoyed my 45th birthday…and, according to pop thought, that puts me in the category of “middle age.”  However, if you do the math, and if you note that average life span of an American male is 76 years (see: CIA Factbook), then I hit middle age when I was 38-years-old…some SEVEN years ago!

But!  Not to worry!  I’m 45 and I’m loving it!  In fact, I am finally beginning to feel like I’m growing up.  Oh, I’ve 21 years of marriage behind me…one “child” in college and two more on the way to college.  I’ve been working for some 28 years.  Still, it hasn’t been until the last two or three years that I have really begun to feel that I am becoming who I want to be, who I should be, who I’m “wired” to be.

Yes, the physical strength is beginning to ebb a bit.  I awaken stiff sometimes in the mornings.  I see more wrinkles here and there…and the hair is both leaving and changing color (“back to blonde,” I like to say!)  I had to get bifocals last year.  But, I’m learning that there is a whole lot more to life than the physical.  In fact, I’ve long believed that there is more to life than the physical…but now I KNOW there is a WHOLE lot more to life.

I grew up as an MK—missionary kid—in Guyana, South American and Grenada, West Indies (and recently discovered that I’m an “Adult TCK”—adult, third culture kid).  Went to school for a BA and three Masters degrees (yes, too much.)  I’ve been a bicycle mechanic, English professor, youth worker, Methodist minister, cross-cultural worker—all of those things trying to find my place in this great world.  I may not be finished as yet with my explorations, but for now I’m very contented to be a teacher and a writer.

In the days to come, I will be sharing my thoughts on a plethora of topics—education, spirituality, healthy living, technology, family, interpersonal relations, life in Mexico, my childhood in the Caribbean…everything!  I’m hardly an expert in anything (my degrees certify me in English Lit., Education and Theology…but my experience it like that of the Greek philosopher in that the more I learn, the more I realize I don’t know!), but I will enjoy sharing my experiences and thoughts…and hope you respond to my thoughts so we might grow simultaneously in our wanderings….

On to the day….

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