I was recently reading The Book of Delights by Ross Gay, a collection of his random musings over the course of a year. I really liked his writing style, mostly because it reminded me of my own. I appreciated his analytical mind, and the way he focused on small details in his world. And it got me thinking: I could do this. Everyday I have thoughts running through my mind, but I usually don’t take the time to write them down — or if I do, I post them on Facebook (the social media platform of choice for most people my age, the platform we found ourselves on in our early 30s after a short stint on MySpace, reconnecting with long-lost classmates and long-distance friends, watching each other get married and buy houses and have babies and all those “real life” things we were supposed to do.) But recording my musings all in one place, rather than splattered along with photos of birthday parties and home improvements, will, I think, help begin to create a story of my life, the one I have been wanting to write since I was a child — before my life had even begun.
This WordPress page started nearly 15 years ago, before social media was as much of a thing, when I was a new parent thrown into the world of raising a child on the autism spectrum, just trying to find my way while feeling relatively isolated in a new state with few friends or family nearby. I’m in a very different place now as a single mom of three boys with a continually growing and/or strengthening network of family, friends, and colleagues. Midlife gives us a moment to pause, to reexamine and possibly even redefine who we are and who we want to be. There honestly really is no choice once you reach our age — there are too many memories, too many mistakes, too many layers in our lives to not begin peeling them back, taking a good look at them, and weaving them together into our stories.
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