I turned 41 yesterday! I'm much more excited and celebratory about turning 41 than I ever would have imagined. Fun things I'm celebrating:

1. I made it to 41. I'm not taking that for granted.
2. Getting back to playing tennis! They even put me on video, so I'll get to see how terrible my footwork is on the local news in a colon cancer awareness segment. 🤣 March is colon cancer awareness month. If it's not too embarrassing, I'll post the link when it's out sometime next week. And if it is too embarrassing, Shelley will post it. 
3. Shelley published an essay! You guys got a sneak peek. She added a bit to her Caring Bridge post about Waiting. It's posted at the Story Warren here: https://storywarren.com/waiting/

For whatever reason, I woke up at 4:30 (even though we just lost an hour in the time change). I'm taking it as a sign that I need to write something, so here we go.

The stereotypical midlife crisis is at 40, but I hardly remember my 40th birthday. It was unimportant and arbitrary at that point. Was it just before or just after my first chemo? I wouldn't know without this Caring Bridge to go back and check. It was before! So I've had all 12 chemos and three surgeries in the year I was 40. That was a hill of a year 😆 No, that's not a typo. I like thinking of life in running terms.

The hill we ran for our high school tennis team made for quite a metaphor. So much so that it was memorialized in a plaque when construction ruined it (If anybody has a picture of that plaque, could you send it to me?). I've extended the metaphor farther than ever. After the steep sprint and the even steeper last 10 yards, we stopped. We huffed and puffed. We walked around a small, flat space at the top of the hill. Did we ever look down the hill, down the side of Missionary Ridge, out over Chattanooga and take in the view? I don't think I did. That's what I'm doing now. I'm taking in the view.

It's quite a view.

I'm so very thankful for the last 41 years. Midlife crisis? Arbitrary. The midpoint of my life very easily could have been some point in college! I wasn't thinking of that as I slid around in the mud of a baseball field under construction at NC State. No need to dwell on that now. I'll just celebrate where I am and how I got here. Cancer included.

Because life is a series of hills. I attacked one and made it to the top. Did I mention I had a bunch of teammates who ran that hill with me? Sometimes you forget when you're so focused on breathing. But I've huffed and puffed and gathered my strength. Time to check on teammates. Ask if they're ready. Encourage them to get ready. Start the walk back down the hill together.

We get to the bottom. Ok, coach. Are we done with hills? What's up next?

Ah. We're running the next hill backwards.

You ready?