Enduring Midlife Like a Champ

One of the Tarr kids’ favorite pastimes is “hang riding” up the driveway. We have a long gravel driveway, and if it’s been a while since grading, crater-like divots develop, and it’s a real wild, bumpy ride.

My kids call these divots speed bumps, and the faster I go over them, the better because one of them might get some air. At the bottom of the driveway, I roll down all the windows; they jump out of the car, assume positions on the runner boards, and grab a handle inside the vehicle.

Our wild, bumpy ride with whoops and shouts of, “Faster!” commences after everyone is ready.

Wait a Minute. I Wasn’t Ready!

Midlife usually arrives differently. No big announcement is made about what’s ahead or to ask if we’re ready.

Several months ago, one of my sisters-in-law sent me a picture, commenting, “Time moves fast and slow.”

She’s right. That chunky four-month-old in the picture is now six, and the almost ten-year-old has shed glasses for contacts and car keys.

The two-year-old who regularly had screaming fits made me wonder if I and the adorable curly head in the blue dress would make it to her third and fourth birthdays. She’s now eight-and-a-half.

The little years feel endlessly long until suddenly, they’re reading and writing–and driving– and they’re not so little anymore.

Of course, it’s not really all of a sudden.

So much life happened between that picture and now. So much that to think about it makes me both exhausted and wonder at the sheer grace of God to carry us through every step of the way.

If you and I were to sit across from one another, I want to tell you that these past six (+) years have been some of the hardest and that quitting almost everything has crossed my mind.

You might ask what I mean by that, and I would share some of what I mean because you need to hear it if you’re entering into or in the thick of midlife.

Read more over at Club31 Women.