"SOMEDAY" IS HERE

Sophia Muller on pixabay.com

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"Someday"

is a disease

that will take your dreams

to the grave with you." 

Tim Ferriss

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So, I did a thing.

I joined a writers group on Facebook two weeks ago. I'm having a blast.

I just turned 60.

Can you say, midlife crisis?

For more than 30 years, I've been a stay-home, home schooling mom. My focus has been my offspring .

Those days have faded. Suddenly, that person staring back at me in the mirror seems to have leaped through a time warp. Am I Rip Van Winkel? Did I sleep away 10-15 years? Who IS that person with the wrinkles, saggy jawls and gray hair? Not me.

Yes, Julia, it really is you.

Gerrit Schwerzel on pixabay.com

I'm faced with the fact that most of my friends started their second careers 10-20 years ago. Some of them are even -retiring-!!! For the last two years I've been thinking about -my- second career. The "Someday" mentioned in the above quote is upon me. Finally, I get to live as the creative person God designed me to be. It's a little uncomfortable.

INESCAPABLE FACT: I AM A CREATIVE

Not a logician, mathematician, financial whiz, scientist

A Creative. With a capital C.

When I graduated high school 40+ years ago, that quality was not appreciated in my corner of the world. Success was measured in number-crunching, not color-splashing or word-smithing. Computer programming, banking, investing, management, even data entry. High rise offices, Wall Street tickers, tailored suits. That's where it was at. I never fit in that world.

But it was okay back then. One of my dreams was to marry and have children. I’m so grateful to have lived that dream. I was able to hide at home from the number/logic heavy world for 3 decades, enjoying the opportunities to be creative with education, fabric, gardening and food (my kids are laughing - I was not a good cook), and with making what we had at hand do the job for our needs. There was no time for writing, creating music or fine art.

So here I am. Kinda lost. A middle-aged woman finally discovering who I am as a Creative. And it is sooo much fun.

I've given myself permission to drop the expectation of being successful in that foreign business world. I tried it again for 3 1/2 years. Not for me. It ain't gonna happen. Ever.

I've given myself permission to enjoy the fact that my Creator made me expressive. I now understand that if I don't write, compose and play music, draw and paint, I will die on the vine. I've let myself off the hook. I don't have to be successful in that foreign world. And, hey, I don't even have to be successful in the creative world. I just need to BE. I just need to be the me that God created me to be. The simple fact that I exist means I'm valuable. I don't hafta perform. And if I can contribute more value, (and I long to do so) then that's frosting on the cake.

For me, “someday” has arrived. And I am embracing it. The writers group is helping me transition. Thoroughly enjoying it.

What is your “someday” dream? Are you living it yet? If not, can you pin a start date on that thing?!