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I made a choice years ago to forego a formal education and marry my high school sweetheart.  My dreams were filled with pictures of babies (cute little girls, I thought) playing on the swing in the backyard, skating on the outdoor pond and snuggling under a warm blanket at story time (some dreams do come true!).  Only small career aspirations lingered as my desire to be the best stay-at-home Mom I could be took hold.  I followed that path until I came to a fork in the road when money was tight and the bills were piling up.  I had a choice - go left and hop on the work train or stay at home and hope for the best.  I tried the work train briefly but the type of work I landed did not fit. Even though my heart still yearned  for the stay-at-home port to call my own, I took a quick turn right and headed off for an education instead of the hearth and home of my dreams.  Although fulfilling and exhilarating and exciting, this path was also filled with traps and triggers that threatened to blow my goal out of the water.  I did not see the clouds of depression forming on the horizon or the poison ivy of bankruptcy creeping along, hidden in the grass.  The storm hit with a magnitude that knocked my dream out of the sky.  NEXT....

One divorce later, I was no longer a stay-at-home Mom.  I was a career woman, studying and moving forward to be able to support a family.  I discovered this path was amazing.  I loved the challenges and embraced my aptitude to think, plan and process in a business environment.  Money was tight but I was in charge and it felt good.  I was finally on the right path - my journey was going to carry me off into the sunset at a ripe old age with loving grandchildren singing their goodbyes through their tears. I discovered my independence and my fighting spirit; I embraced my intelligence and my administrative skills.  I had found my niche.  This was a good port to visit and maybe even stay at for a while. I dreamed of romance and far away places; a career ladder that reached the mountain top and quiet safety on some cute veranda watching grandchildren playing in the park.  Storm clouds rolled in, thunder and lightning crashed like I had never seen or heard before and my dream blew into tatters like an old Kleenex soaked with tears.  Another romance ended, the cute veranda was attacked, it seemed, by the termites of matrimonial settlements and I moved on. NEXT..........

NOW, here I am, in a wonderful relationship, retired, and living on a beautiful oasis in Canada! and, I just have to pause and remember how I felt so torn, so unlikely to reach this place of peace and contentment and send the message out to all you 40 and 50 and 60 somethings!  YOU CAN DO IT!  Grab on to life, live it with all you have got, take a risk, catch a train, go somewhere exotic, open up your eyes, hug a child, release your pain - follow your dream and when something snatches that dream find another one and follow it!  It ain't over until it's over!  There are wasted moments in everyone's life and even some less than exemplary years here and there, but, if you can see past these snags, pull from the deep inner strength you have garnered by facing yesterday's challenges, you can fill your life with the peace or contentment or exhilaration of your dreams - moment by moment - because that is where life is lived - in the moments!  NEXT........!