It Is Never Too Late To Be Who You Might Be [Yours,Yan]
Life really begins at 40, or 50, or 60 -- you make the rules.
“Focus on what’s left, not on what’s lost.
Focus on who’s stay, not on who’s left.
Accept the season is over or cry about it the rest of your life.
God has a bigger thing for you. God has move forward. Join Him!”
(God/Universe/Life can be interchanged here, depending on what your current faith is)
~~~~
Hello friends,
I read this somewhere from a Christian book during my active days in church. I named that period - “the era of on-fire-for-the-Spirit”. For some reason, those words rang a huge alarm in my heart that I wrote them on my bright yellow 3M Post-It-Notes and stuck it in my “Little Black Book of Quotes”.
6 days ago, I celebrated my 40th. This quote surfaced in my consciousness after a deep enriching conversation with my confidante-best friend.
I am not one who makes a big deal out of being “40” or “30” or even “60” - a trend I noticed these days on social media, where many are using the decades-milestone with new-decade-resolutions. It made me wondered - why do we still over-glorify our ages, and not focus on living a purposeful and fulfilling life, no matter your age?
It make me think that they might be running away from some deep-seated insecurities and fears by setting such decades-milestones, or could it just be a coincidence of time-and-events for them to finally be/do/have the very person/thing they have always wanted to, since a young age, before the harsh reality of adulthood conditioned their innocent souls with battlefield scars and burdens?
Only they will know, during the dark nights of the soul.
Generously share Yours, Yan with your pals and network, it means the world to me knowing that my stories have made a small impact on them.
Turning 40 wasn’t something I looked forward to or ran away from. Age has never bothered me. What mattered more was how I had lived my life, and how I am about to live my life moving forward —the emphasis has always been and still is on the quality, not the quantity of my life lived thus far. This includes a check-in with my quality of my connection with friends, family, and people that I crossed paths with.
Life always presents us with so many experiences, yet what makes all the difference is how we choose to handle them — do we react or respond?
The past 3 years of my life have honestly been filled with unexpected pivots and events, that I suspect my heart is still healing from.
I could have been jailed? I could have died? I could have…..
I didn’t know what I wanted to do for my 40th. It’s just a birthday, no big deal I tell myself. For as long as I can remember, I always get the pre-birthday jitters and anxieties of celebrating with friends and family. (And I often wonder if this is an introvert’s or narcissist's thing.)
I even wanted to spend it alone, with my singing bowls, writing book and pen, and a mat, head to my favorite quiet nature spot, and celebrate real living with the wild nature and animals, soaking in the sight and sounds, co-creating art, movement and music with the forces of nature.
But this quote surfaced.
Focus on what’s left, not on what’s lost.
Focus on who’s stay, not on who’s left.
And when I thought about “How Do We Live a Groovy Good Life?”, I can hear my mum’s wise words of “the funeral is never for the dead, but for the living” in my head. I instinctively knew, the same can be applied for birthdays. “Birthdays are not for me, but for those who are still in my life.”
And so I did.
Seeing the pictures of how we celebrated together, made me felt so incredibly blessed and grateful for an amazing family and friends. I don’t have a big social circle (heck I only have 63 subscribers here, of which, probably only 4 people are actively reading?) but I know I have always wanted quality connections with depth that can withstand time.
Scrolling through the photos had my heart filled with so much of the real love that I read in stories, sermons, and shows. These people have witnessed my growth and transformation through trials and tribulations, they have quietly and resolutely been there for me, supported and believed me, even when I made stupid mistakes many times.
And so I focused on who’s stayed and what’s left, letting go of the things that are beyond my control, one stone at a time, one brick at a time, one gravel at a time.
Living life can be wildly fun all over again and again no matter how old we are, if we choose our focus. Where our focus goes, our energies flow. Where our awareness is placed, our energies are paced.
And “It Is Never Too Late To Be Who You Might Be - T.S. Eliot”
Happy birthday to all my friends and kindreds too, no matter when you read this, know that I am always celebrating with you and for you.
❤️ Yours, Yan
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