This Is 40?

I celebrated my 40th birthday yesterday, greeted by my loving wife, my kids, and my dog (actually Porkchop is always the first to greet me every morning). Waking earlier than everybody else in the house, I said my prayers thanking God for all the blessing these past 40 years. And after a quick shower and light breakfast (pan-de-sal, instant pancit canton, coffee), I logged into the computer to begin working on pending jobs. Yes, It's my birthday, and I spent the first half of the day working. The later half though was spent with food, family, and a great flick... RoboCop 2014. At work, meaning "when online", the first to greet me was Google's homepage... how cute is that? On Gmail, companies greeted be with their automated greeting programs, on Facebook, friends and relatives greeted me as well.

I officially turned middle-aged... does that mean I won't live beyond 80? Why is 40 "middle age" anyway? And why do they say life begins now? After an honest assessment of what I've been up to these past 40 years, I look back and see that life began long ago for me. My wife and kids complete me and it is actually my children's lives that's beginning as they are experiencing new things each day that are already old news to people my age. Physically I feel no different than when I was in my twenties. Except maybe for the aversion to gout inducing foods, everything else is peachy.