I have less than 24 hours before I make 50 – and I have to say I feel more like me than I ever have before, so thank god for the aging process and how as your body heads south, your mind heads north. I put together 50 lessons I’ve learned – some are original, borrowed, recycled, plagiarized, but all I declare my own on my very own blog:
#1 – We are helpless to change some of the things that matter to us, and the best thing we can do is to just accept that our power lies in letting some things be.
#2 – If you sleep on anything, it will seem easier in the morning. Maybe not the next morning, but in a few mornings, you’ll nail it or move past it.
#3 – Chemistry between lovers is the eighth wonder of the world. There is nothing like it, nothing that can be explained about it, and nothing you want or could do about it.
#4 – The meaning of life is to live it.
#5 – Establish a credo very early on and live it – mine is “Give me a place to stand and I will move the world.”
#6 – My other credo is “Fake it till you make it.”
#7 – The word mother is the weightiest word in our vocabulary – father doesn’t carry the same burden. You can blame your mother for just about anything that is wrong with you and hold her accountable for every one of your shortcomings. She that rocks the cradle rocks the world is an understatement.
#8 – If you eat more than you exercise, you gain weight.
#9 – My 20-year-old self could not have handled my 50-year-old self.
#10 – Loving your body is the single loving act of kindness you could ever do for yourself.
#11 – Everyone has to work even if you are very rich or very poor.
#12 – Exercising your body expands your mind.
#13 – Dancing is the manifestation of bliss.
#14 – If you find a job you love, you will be rewarded with more riches than you could ever imagine.
#15 – You know how they say pick your battles; well, it’s not that you couldn’t win all your battles, it’s that no one would like you if you did.
#16 – Every time you do one nice thing for a stranger or a stray animal you add to your karma.
#17 – Write out goals for the next year or the next five and then be prepared to scratch them all off your list.
#18 – There is always more to learn.
#19 – Be grateful for everyone who has ever loved you. It ain’t easy.
#20 – Try not to follow, you don’t have to lead, but it is good to walk alone at times.
#21 – Take photographs not for posterity but to enjoy now.
#22 – Too much of anything is no good for you baby. Evil means excess.
#23 – Invite people over to your house and make them a meal. This is what adults do. If people invite you over, thank them for their generosity. People who don’t invite people into their house to eat with them are missing something sacred.
#24 – Eat well. Fruits, vegetables, nuts, and humanely raised, if not organic, meat. Simple food is so good and yet so out of mental reach for too many.
#25 – Pick a day out of the year to reflect on the past 365 days and the upcoming 365 days, apologize to those you have wronged and forgive those who have wronged you, and come to peace with your self. I do this on Yom Kippur – it’s my tradition borne out of my religion but it has high application to a secular life.
#26 – My mother told me that at 25 years old, my belief system would shift and then at 35 years old it would shift again, and that I wouldn’t become a woman until I was 50 years old. She was right.
#27 – Embrace each stage of your life by shedding your skin.
#28 – Some of us are natural born givers, some are takers; be both.
#29 – Explore your sexuality.
#30 – Feet of clay – forgive yourself your trespasses, we are only human.
#31 – Plan ahead, but expect chaos when you get there.
#32 – Ask for what you want. No one can read your mind.
#33 – Think of a super hero and when the going gets tough embody the attributes of that character. My muse is Wonder Woman, in times of most turmoil I frequently ask WWWWD?
#34 – Be yourself, everyone else is taken.
#35 – Oprah said failure is a way of letting you know you are on the wrong path. I don’t believe it. Live your dreams and learn to embrace failure.
#36 – Make yourself happy – this should be lesson number one but I’ve buried it down in here because it is the essence of every other lesson.
#37 – You know the adage this too shall pass, remember that especially when you are low, when you feel like your friends have deserted you, when the mirror says you are not beautiful, or when your mental acuity lacks much to be desired according to you and the whole world is against you. Tomorrow you will feel like a god. And then, that too shall pass.
#38 – Don’t be embarrassed by your family – you did not choose them.
#39 – This is one of my favorite quotes, it’s by Louise Nevelson, “You must create your own world. I’m responsible for my world.”
#40 – Be direct. Speak your mind. Be TRANSPARENT.
#41 – Be able to name your demons – denial is so overdone.
#42 – Watching your body age is not for pussies – you have to be a warrior and commit to rebuilding, not just maintaining, the daily destruction.
#43 – Try not to succumb to gimmicks, particularly as you age. If something sounds too good to be true, it most likely is, whether it be something to buy, something to make you look younger, something to make you richer, faster, better.
#44 – Believe in mystery – something greater than yourself – it doesn’t have to be through religion and faith in God, but it has to be so you understand that there are forces in the universe that are greater than your pea brain comprehension..
#45 – Celebrate yourself.
#46 – Love is my religion – proceed with love.
#47 – To have a friend is to be a friend.
#48 – Bringing an animal into your life will radically change who you are, but be prepared to take their life when the time comes because it always comes too soon.
#49 – You are never too old for anything. Scratch “too old” from your vocabulary.
#50 – Throw a party and make it last a lifetime!