When one clocks 40, the tendency is to have mixed feelings; the good feeling of coming of age and the silent panic at the thought of growing older.

The year my age clock ticked forty and passed it, I could try to tell you that I didn’t care less at that point in time, but if the truth is told, I had pressure on my mind to just go after my dreams without delay. I felt that I had been held back by incidents of life, however, it was still up to me to change things and make the life that I want for myself. Call me slow, but it’s taken me 40+ years to figure a number of things out.

Now that my knees are acting as though they belong to someone else – I must say I no longer feel so spritely and each day I am reminded that I no longer have the luxury of being in my twenty’s.  Some of us are able to get all their ducks in a row early in life, whilst some of us have our boats battered by the winds, pushed off course as we row as hard as we can to keep it from capsizing. The great thing is that if we keep going we will surely get to the shore.

In seeking ways on how to generate a better lifestyle for myself and to find out if the cliché ‘life begins at forty’ holds some truth, I remember the Bible passage: Isaiah 40:31

But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

I did a little read up on Eagles and learned that Bald Eagles go through a process of transformation at 40. They make a life-changing decision not to give in easily to the strictures of aging but it strategically breaks off its beak and rips off its feathers in order to grow new ones. This excruciatingly painful procedure takes solid 5 months of risk and hunger but extends the eagle’s life by another glorious stretch of 30 years.

It’s said that the eagle has only two options: to make these changes or to die and this brings me to my question: what are your options?

• What are those crucial decisions that you need to make?
• What are those dreams that you need to hunker down and pursue with every ounce of breath in you?
• What are those lifestyle changes that you must make to give your body a fighting chance to go the long haul?

Are you going to brave up and renew your strength like an Eagle or are you just going to roll up your mat and whine about everything going on in your life?

Remember, that the energy of silent panic can be turned into something positive.

Be at peace.

Jacqueline