40

There is something magical that occurs when a woman turns forty. She becomes more attractive in a sensual seductive way. It's not that her body gets better, but I think she becomes comfortable with her body and learns how to manuever it better. At forty, woman's eyes begin to sparkle. Not with lust or excitement, but with wisdom. She has seen some things, done some things and learned some things that show through her eyes. At forty, although there are things on a woman's body that lie down, at the same time, other things stand out. They become clear. At forty a woman finds her voice, gets her vision and her footing. When I turned forty I became to old to try to be someone else, so I stopped trying.

As I thought about it, I realized that I didn't have any sense at all until I turned forty. At twenty-three I thought I had the answers. At forty I realized I had no idea what the question was. My life coach once told me that whatever shows up in your life is the answer. Your job is to figure out the question. I have lived through many abrupt, harsh answers. At forty I was committed to remembering the question. For me, the main question I had lived my life trying to answer was, "Why can't people love me the way I want to be loved?" At forty the answer magically popped in my head. "Because you don't know how to love yourself!"

Taken from "Yesterday, I Cried" by Iyanla Vanzant

This part of the book really hit home for me. For a long time I dreaded turning forty. In fact I would always say, I'm celebrating the eleventh anniversary of my twenty-ninth birthday.......but in the past few months since my birthday came and went I am enjoying forty. This year so far has been one of tremendous growth and understanding, change and renewal, peace and serenity. I don't know why I dreaded it.....cause I am surely enjoying it. This is just another example of me focusing on the glass half empty when I should have been focusing on the glass half full!