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Health & Fitness

Turning Point- tales from a mid-life mama

Turning Points
When you look back on your life do you see a path of turning points each bringing you closer to who you are today?

turn·ing point a time at which a decisive change in a situation occurs, esp. one with beneficial results.

I turned 45 this month, a significant turning point. I’ve hit the middle.  I plan on living until I’m at least 90 and I’m halfway there.

Turning points are most easily seen in the rearview mirror, but are those pivotal times where external or internal circumstances drive change. You lose your job, your child goes to college or you get this inner feeling that you want MORE from work or relationships.You reach a tipping point where your desire to BE YOU, out weighs fears doubts and "shoulds" and you create lasting change.

And the day came when the risk to remain tight in the bud became more painful than the risk it took to blossom.  ~Anais Nin

I’d imagined a my 45th birthday triggering a mid-life crisis, but instead this mid-life mama was ready to celebrate!

I indulged myself and booked a spa day at the health club I practically lived at when the kids were babies.  I hadn’t been there for five years and couldn’t wait to get in my robe and recline next to the fire in the relaxation room.  

I parked the car and headed up the steep familiar staircase to the entrance of the club.  As my hand ran along the bannister I was flooded with memories. I climbed those stairs 9 months pregnant dreaming of baby toes and cheeks, I hauled toddlers and baby buckets, I worried about my post partum weight.  I climbed those same stairs hundreds of times. A wave of grief moved through me.  That time of birthing and raising babies was firmly in my past.  

The question came “Who am I now?”

I checked in.  A small bouquet of roses greeted me when I opened my locker door. I wrapped myself in the heavy, comforting robe and sat in the silence.  It was delicious.  I had a deep sense of coming home.  There were many turns in the road over the past five years, some sharp, I almost derailed, some subtler, but they all brought me here.

I have new and hard won maturity, wisdom and confidence.  I can remain present to my body and myself.  I fully received the warm bath, the massage, the facial, allowing the luxury and touch to refuel me.  I journaled.  I shed a tear or two for the woman who I was, and I celebrated who I am now.

At the end of the day, renewed and inspired, my hand gently touched the bannister on the way down and I felt a sense of integration, mixed with gratitude and awe.  I am privileged that my innate strengths and gifts allow me to connect deeply with you in service to transformation.  I felt shiny and polished, my light blazing the trail forward.

I am curious about you.  What turning point are you experiencing?  How about your friends? What topics are coming up in your book clubs, coffee clutches, lunches, over a glass of wine?  Where do you want to give or receive more?  Where are you aching for change?  How do you want to create a more meaningful life?

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