FORTY. Such a full, round, even number. When I was a kid, I always imagined being forty as something else, something completely different. I can't really describe what I thought forty would feel like but it's NOT what I feel right now. I definitely feel inadequate to be telling people I’m forty, like I need to be smarter and more serious to say that. My brain has not fully processed it yet, it seems. And so I think I’ll just say I’m 35 for the next 365 days. As I celebrate a milestone birthday today (they do say, after all, that life begins at forty, whatever that means), I take stock of the life that the Lord has blessed me with. I am many things to many people — a son, a brother, a nephew, an uncle, a cousin, a friend, a doctor, a colleague, a boss, and a teacher. I’ve been blessed to be useful in so many different ways but at the end of the day, I feel that these many roles that I play have enriched my life more than I realize and that I have the better end of the bargain.
