Mid Life Celebration

Get A Grip & Be Prepared

Ever wonder how you’ll handle all of the challenges you face today?

And let’s suppose we actually do get a handle on our overwhelming challenges, then what?

What are the odds that we’ll be overwhelmed again soon?

Maybe I should go back to drinking everyday.  After a few drinks, we are medicated enough to stop worrying about today – it can wait until tomorrow.  That’s a nice relief – no more worry today.

But it mostly can’t wait.  If we do wait, more stuff is added to our “pile”.

Then we reach for our “midlife medication”.

Why we fail to look in the rear view mirror and see what is coming is beyond me.

Well, it used to be beyond me. Now, it’s staring me in the face. Every day.

It’s a ton of work, but at least I’m being honest with myself.

Talk about mid-life peace of mind.

Well, not talk. Do.

Spirit

Midlife heartbreak or midlife opportunity.  Pretty simple.  Two choices.  You get to pick one.

If you and your spouse (and yes, want to acknowledge some readers will not be parents), worked hard all your life and played by the rules, and you gave birth to a child without eyes and never able to walk, which would you pick?

Mid Life heartache or mid life opportunity?

Well, there was a Family that had to make this choice.  They were featured on ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition as well as numerous other media pieces, including a heartwarming You Tube Video feature, about 6 minutes long, available at the end of this post.

One of my “secrets” to unspeakable  joy is the daily effort to read, listen, watch, experience, think, do and reflect on the countless blessings that surround my ordinary life.

You have all these blessings too.  But in order to feel the Peace and Contentment that are the fruit of these blessings, you must become fully aware.

You must become willing to invest time everyday.  Even if it’s only six minutes. Will today be another day to postpone your new beginning?

If it’s not, click here.

They Could Ask You At Any Moment

“Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope, but do it with gentleness and reverence.” — Saint Peter

Perhaps hope is elusive to us during a midlife crisis.

Perhaps hope surrounds us during a midlife celebration.

All this time, I’ve been asking you to think about your answer to the simplest, but most important question a young person may ask you.

Are you inspired enough now to come up with your own unique and special answer?

Breathtaking

“To Love and be Loved.”

“Wait! That’s it? That’s all you got? Are you kidding me?”, people might be thinking.

And I say, “What? it’s too simple for you?”

Hello. Earth to astonished person. Wake up. Of course it’s simple.

It’s profoundly simple, and yet simply profound.

“To Love and be Loved.”

Most of life is simple. It’s our nature to want to complicate things, to believe, “Everything is important.”

Why?  It’s remains a mystery to this very day.  Perhaps it’s the whole “keeping up with the Jones” syndrome.

Simplicity is the way.  The only way.

By the way, “I’ll bet you still don’t have an answer, do you?”, he thought to himself as he finished writing this blog post.

Mid Life: A Celebration or Crisis?

Is it?

I mean seriously, humans have complicated life, in a noble attempt to simplify it. Haven’t we?

Perhaps greed is the underlying thread that has made simplicity so complex.

No matter, we continue our search for the meaning of life and the peace we hope to gain from embracing it – if only it would be revealed to us.

Tell you what, I’ll reveal it to you tomorrow and all your challenges will vanish.

Meanwhile, mull on this overnight:

If a child asked you, “What is the meaning of life?”, what would your immediate answer be?

Nothing Under Mid Life

Are you getting this? Mid Life Crisis versus Mid Life Celebration.

These are simply mid life words, but the difference between the two sets of words is as profound as the difference here:

• Hate and Love
• War and Peace
• Terrorist and Missionary
• Dishonest and Honest
• Criminal and Saint
• Death and Life
• Apathy and Passion
• Crisis and Celebration

Have I told you lately how much joy it brings to know there are others out there who benefit as much from Mid Life Celebration as I do?

Three days away from New Year’s Eve. Got big plans for 2010?

A Word Is Worth A Thousand Pictures

Do you have words that fill you with Joy?  Words that inspire you? Words that instantly create positive images in your mind?

Four favorites are in the Mid Life Celebration blog post title here – wisdom, confidence, courage, joy.

Do those do anything for you?  How about these:

• Faith, Hope, Love
• Peace, Harmony, Balance
• Creativity, Innovation, Change
• Laughter, Humor, Bliss
• Hunger, Desire, Passion
• Determination, Tenacity
• Vision, Mission, Brand
• Social Media, Blogs, Facebook
• Mind, Body, Spirit, Money

Words. So many good ones. So much meaning.

Mid Life Crisis and Mid Life Celebration. Ya with me?

What brings people Joy?  And why do people try to bring joy to others? Also, what is it about joy that makes us feel good, whether we give joy or receive joy?

It really doesn’t matter does it?

I mean, giving, or receiving, joy always makes us feel good. I love that about joy. Who doesn’t, right?

Yesterday you heard that Mid Life Celebration isn’t selling anything that costs money, and that Mid Life Celebration is one of five daily blogs written by jeff noel (hello), from Orlando, Florida.

Please, make no mistake, eventually there will be an effort to make money – a lot of money – to give away to people.

And also, please make no mistake, Mid Life Celebration is dedicated to making the world a better place, never resting in an effort to sell hope and inspiration.

Is Andre Agassi in midlife celebration mode?  Maybe.

About a week ago, in a rare moment (watching TV), I saw Katie Couric interview Andre Agassi on 60 Minutes.

Okay, so one of the greatest American Tennis stars had a drug problem. And no one knew about it.

And to top it off, the number one Tennis player in the world hated Tennis. And no one knew about that either. How is that possible?

Whatever and however Andre Agassi’s story played out, it’s being told now in his new book, “Open“.

Andre Agassi is 39 years old.  A perfect age to in a mid life celebration. Do you think Andre is thankful?  I mean, how could you not be thankful that you’ve had a mid life drug confession?

Maybe he has a new drug.  A drug called thankfulness.

Click here if you want to read the Times online article.

“This is true joy in life. … To be a force of nature, not a feverish clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.” – George Bernard Shaw

If I focused on my ailments and grievances, that’s all you’d hear me talk about.

Instead, I’m thankful that my feet hurt after a long day of standing and teaching others.

There are people who wish they had sore feet.  Well actually, they simply wish they had feet.  Not everyone does.

This reminds me to be thankful for everything. Everything.  Ya with me?

What a GREAT day to be alive!

Hey, thanks for reading Mid Life Celebration.  Your time is very important to you.

Heck, mine is too.

And I devote a fair piece of it to Mid Life Celebration.

Why?

Because it makes me feel like I’m helping some of you mid-life folks find a home where you can come to for a gentle push or pull.

Finding people who care is a challenge.  Sometimes, that’s all that’s missing.  We just need someone to tell us not to give up.  Someone to tell us there is work to be done and we ought to do our fair share.

Someone to remind us that although we may feel like in this world, we are just one person, to another person, we may just be the world to them.

We all know what should be done.  But the hard part is actually doing it.

I’ve always liked people who pushed me to be a better person.

Hope you like those kinds of people too.  There aren’t too many of them, but they’re out there.

Carpe diem, jeff noel 

Getting old isn’t a burden, it’s a huge responsibility. It’s also a gift.

It’s hard as heck to stay healthy. You’d never guess by looking at me, but I have to work incredibly hard to stay healthy. My very life literally depends on it.

For some, it’s “impossible”, because that’s the choice they’ve made, to believe it is impossible.

Christopher Reeves wrote several books, one entitled, “Nothing Is Impossible“.

In my work, I was blessed to spend time with him and his family.

I can’t help but wonder what he would have paid to do what you (most of us anyway) and I did this morning. Wake up. Throw the blankets aside. Stand up. Walk to the bathroom. Bend over and brush our teeth. Etc.

What would Christopher have paid to do that?

One million dollars?

Five million?

$50,000,000?

We got it for free? At least that’s what I think.

If you think you can, or you think you can not, you are right.

It’s all about choices. Tough choices. Life-altering choices. Easy choices and hard choices. At least that’s what I think.

Hope you get time soon to think about your choices. If you don’t decide, who will? If not now, when? The people who love you are watching. This scares the heck out of me. Carpe diem, jeff

It’s taken me nearly 50 years to fully embrace what Easter is all about.

How long did it take you?

Do you even embrace Easter?

It’s certainly no one’s place to judge another, whether they celebrate Easter or not.

I just wanted to reinforce that a Mid Life Crisis is a perfect time to start thinking about celebrating something.

Finding something to celebrate, even in the midst of “a great depression”, could be the very thing that helps you survive and maybe even thrive. It has for me. Carpe diem, jeff

“And how, you ask, are we to walk the spiritual path? We answer: say little, and love much; give all; judge no man; aspire to all that is pure and good“. — White Eagle

Make it a great Mid-Life day. It’s our attitude and our choice. Always is and always will be. It’s the one thing we do have control over.

PS. No one ever promised it would be easy. When I start feeling like my path is hard, I think of, or click on, Nick Vujicic.

Carpe diem, jeff noel