by Kelly Greenbaum

Created on: August 06, 2009   Last Updated: October 09, 2009

Remember that song."Today is my birthday, going to have a good time?" I found out, in my area, I can have three lobster dinners for free, half off at the local comedy place, and free drinks until I'm blue in the face. Hooray! That's the good news. The bad news is I have to pay hundreds of dollars in new plates for my vehicles and I am a year older, but as my dear friend always tells me, it's better then the alternative, which is death. I honestly never thought of living to be forty one years old. I figured between global disasters, raising teenagers, family, and not always living as healthy as I could have, would have caught up with me by now. I have a new sense of being after I turned forty. I have heard many women say this when they are this age. Women have a better grasp on reality, know what priorities really matter, and in what order they should come in.

Women learn to forgive and forget, realize patience is a virtue, and when looking back in the past, the bigger picture becomes so much more obvious, they wonder why they never saw it in the first place. They realize everything does happen for a reason, to not sweat the small stuff, and realize, almost everything is the small stuff. They understand they are only as old as they feel, and only as happy as they allow themselves to be.

I have awakened to the knowledge, that thinking positive, is much healthier then thinking negatively. I have also succumbed to the idea that we choose our own destinies created by the belief systems we were raised with, plus the experiences we have gone through. I believe most people do the best they can given the coping skills, education, and love they have been exposed to. I believe war happens because of useless power struggles in our attempts to make everyone become like us. How boring would life be without diversity.

When I travel to a foreign destination, this is when it hits me the strongest, just how diverse and special America is. I appreciate how lucky I was to be born in this country. The opportunities to exceed is bred into our belief systems; that we can do anything we want to as long as we work hard enough to get it! I look back and think of all of the miracles in my life and how many times, when things looked the bleakest, and most difficult, God, or some higher power, has come through for me, and not only solved the dilemma, but dusted me off and set me on my way again.

I know that every good thing I do to help others will come back to me and my children ten fold,

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