As I approach 44, the same age Miranda Sawyer was when she wrote this article ‘I have lived over half of my life’ I ponder many of the same questions that she considers. In it she gets insights from Oliver James, Philippa Perry, Simon Armitage, and even Ed Simons from the Chemical Brothers.
“…gradually, gradually, I realised that something inside me was uneasy. I was struggling a little. Mourning a bit. I felt like I had the wrong coat on – too hot, too heavy – and I felt like something beautiful was rushing at me, moving past and around me at breakneck speed, and I couldn’t gather it in and I didn’t want to see it go.
It’s not important, I know that. It doesn’t matter. But at some point soon, along with many of my friends, I will pass an unmarked, uncelebrated central life point. You turn 40, and if you’re healthy, and optimistic, you imagine you will have more than 40 years to go. Get into your mid-40s, and past that… and you know you don’t. Say it again. Try to comprehend it. I have lived over half of my life.”
The conclusion she reaches, is probably the only one that is meaningful: “Midlife or not, in the end, or in the middle, these are the days of my life. These are the days of your life. And the thing to do – is live them.”
The Social Enterprise 