MY BIG SECRET

I know I am a little old to have secrets so this one I want to share. This one is about turning 50. This is a secret I learned over the last few months since I turned 50 and I want to share it but please keep don’t keep it between us…

The secret is…50 is not so bad! As a matter of fact it’s pretty freaking amazing!! I started celebrating my 50th birthday in July of 2014 and the celebration kept on going through the end of the year. At fifty you finally, kind of understand the idea about patience, love and understanding. I think I have started to really get what is important.

In my opinion, the way to turn 50 is to embrace the hell out of it. Tell everyone you know and just enjoy every minute of it. Let your friends and family celebrate you for a little while – how often does something this big, this monumental happen to you – I AM A HALF CENTURY OLD FOR GOODNESS SAKE!?!?

Look around you and take inventory and don’t think about what’s missing in your life. Don’t focus on the things that did not happen, the missed opportunities or the loved ones that are no longer with us. Forget the money that you did not make or have lost. Don’t think about the trip you did not take. Just be glad to have this wonderful and special moment – to turn 50 years old! The joy is in every moment we have now, with each other every day.

I am happier at 50 than I was at 40, and I was happier at 40 than I was at 30. I feel surer of myself. I have good health. I am respected at work and I am good at my job. I have terrific friends and a wonderful family. I could whine about this or that, but why bother? Look at EACH OF YOU; I am rich beyond my wildest dreams. Rich in love, friends and very rich in family.

 At 50, there’s so much of life to look back on and celebrate, and yet, there is still so much more to do! So look out world–I have only just begun!

MY AFRICA TRIP

I had planned a trip to Africa in March of 2015. Through generous donations of all of my friends I was able to raise $3,000 to do a special project in Africa. I have thought about this trip a lot considering the Ebola epidemic that is ravaging Western Africa. The volunteer site is KwaZulu-Natal Zululandin in far Eastern Africa and that is a very long distance from where the Ebola cases have been. I feel very safe going on this trip however my family and friends have asked that I postpone this trip until there is a vaccine or at the very least the epidemic is under control. So I am going to move my trip to March of 2016. I expect that I will do the exact same type of volunteer work – to try and help local farmers start micro-farms. 

Thank you to every one of you. You each make my life better. You are what keeps me going. You are what drives me to believe I can change the world.

– Brian, Age 50.