As I sit here just a stones throw past my mid-life mark, I once again make a courageous attempt to figure out how I managed to get here so quickly, where the past 40 years went and why it feels like I have lived today too many times before. Heady stuff for first thing in the morning.
Sipping my Starbucks ‘Tall Coffee In A Grande Cup Packed To The Top With Whipped Cream’ (you must try it, it’s fabulous), the sun peeps out and gives a wink before darting back into it’s dismal hiding place. But no matter, my beverage of choice puts a smile on my face and for the moment I am content.
The music blares above me as caffeine-craved people come and caffeine-saturated people go and I can’t help but turn my attention to the conversations around me, as for some reason people at coffee shops tend to talk in voices intended to command attention at something like a rodeo.
“It was like my mother shot herself in the foot”…”I think slinking from you is the hardest to do”…”I could eat a hundred of these, they’re so moist but have a bit of chew”…”Set the thing upright, I’m telling you, you gotta set it upright or it won’t work out”…’We all have our own stuff and I don’t know. I just don’t know”… “They have to fill out their paper work and get fingerprinted”…”I know myself well enough and there’s a reason, I swear there’s a reason”…
There was one more that I couldn’t quite make out but sounded like, “No, no, no, it was dripping from the cracker barrel”…?
A cacophony of voices planning their day, reporting on their lives, connecting with another life. I am amused because as I am basking in my caffeine glow it all sounds to me like a song that Paul Simon might have wrote. I think it coulda been a big hit.
Taking in my surroundings, I step away from my weighty ponderings and feel refreshed. You see, I’ve been swimming a little bit too much in the Mid-life-Menopause Regret & Remorse Pond lately. Reflection is good. I just need to remember to season it with acceptance and gratitude because if I meander down the path of shame for my life’s missteps, my perceptions cloud and that Pond turns to quicksand.
So here’s to a cup of joe, this marvelous mid-life, a hearty conversation topped off with a dash of gratitude.
