How Cliche

I used to view the idea of a mid-life crisis with skepticism, a small amount of amusement and more than a little scorn.

I don't know about you, but the image that always comes to mind for me is something like this:



You know...an old, balding man with a bad toupee and a fake tan in a shiny red convertible with a leggy blonde half his age next to him in the passenger seat. Probably there is an ex (or soon to be ex) wife and three kids somewhere whose lives are devastated or about to become so.

I never really thought about women experiencing such a phenomenon.

Until I experienced it.

So I did some research on the subject. Here are just a couple of things that I found:

This quote by Sue Shallenbarger--
"A midlife crisis is a cliché until you have one."

and this--
"A midlife crisis might occur anywhere from about age 37 through the 50s..."-- Dan Jones, PhD, director of the Counseling and Psychological Services Center at Appalachian State University, Boone, N.C. (for those of you adamantly declaring that I am way too young to experience such a thing)


If you're about to go pop the popcorn and grab a drink to settle in and read the juicy details, I'm so sorry to disappoint.

Neither this post, nor this blog are about the whys and wherefores of my midlife crisis.

If you're about to call me, text, send me a message on facebook, or make an appointment with my pastor on my behalf, you can relax.

I have declared my midlife crisis to be over, and I am fine. My family is fine.

And because I would secretly want to know if I were reading this on your blog:
No. I am not the proud owner of a shiny new convertible. I did not get a tattoo or a boob job (although I did pierce my nose and my tragus somewhere along the way). I do not have a secret Italian lover, nor am I having an affair with the 18 year old bag boy at the supermarket. :o) My midlife crisis was neither so sordid...nor so simple.

I imagine no one's is.

Being a girl from Kansas, I've always loved the Wizard of Oz. And I love the part where, while trying to figure out how to return to her family, Dorothy tells the Tin Man what she's learned while in Oz.

"...if I ever go looking for my heart's desire again, I won't look any further than my own back yard. Because if it isn't there, I never really lost it to begin with! Is that right?"

So, welcome to my backyard as I search for my heart's desire in this new season that is "midlife." Feel free to stay for as long as you like. Or to run away as far and as fast as you can. :o)