The Sun Rises at 40

I think I get it now. I think I finally get what they mean when they say that life begins at 40. As a newbie forty-something, I have found myself revisiting life's bigger questions and callings. Like a planet on its course, I have come to the question about my purpose, about what lights up my heart and fills me with joy.  Having turned 40 a year and a half ago, I find myself face-to-face with the very questions that confronted me half of my lifetime ago.

And while I do not think that life actually begins at forty, I have come to see my turning forty as the sunrise in my life. Which is to say, I am going to a new vision of life for myself. The sunlight is only just beginning to come through, so I am seeing an urgency of heart more than a clear picture. I am remembering the things that matter most to me. I am remembering the kind of work that revs me up. And in this remembering, the picture of where I come from blurs with the picture of where I am going.