Now that I, and most of my friends, are heading into our forties - we are approaching the time o' the mid-life-crisis. While this term is usually reserved for men that start sleeping with their secretaries and get toupees, tans, man-jewelery and hot, red sports cars - there are plenty of women that have the "Holy Shit!" moment and fly into an existential panic. Or depression. Or both - depending on the levels of chocolate in their systems.
Women in their forties that have children are no longer needed all the freaking time by said offspring, and find themselves suddenly faced with the reality that their body parts no longer point in the direction they used to and that there is a whole trunk load full of dreams they once had that got put away.
Men and women at this point of life pretty much seem to fall apart in order to cast off the old and bring in every wonderful new possibility for themselves. They get to discover what they will come to see, if they so choose, as the unbelievable joy of personal reinvention.
I write as though I am not a part of "they." I sooo am - it's just that my personal life crisis's started so much earlier that, now that I am entering my mid-life-point, I have already been reinventing myself for a bloody long time. The great thing we can come to realize is that we are never done creating and becoming. We get to choose what no longer works and get rid of it and choose what we want to do and experience and become and embrace it and dance with it. We get to keep re-looking and reinventing ourselves until the day we die. How fabulous is that?
Two of my closest friends, Suzette and Dorothy, wanted to shake things up for themselves. Dorothy wanted to learn to play the guitar and Suzette wanted to play the drums. So they got instruments, Suzette got a teacher - Dorothy got online and taught herself, and they started their own "band practice" in the garage of Suzette's house. They were having so much fun they decided to pick a few songs to work up and sing along to. This led to them deciding to challenge themselves beyond anything they were comfortable with - which led to them booking a recording studio and then shooting their own video.
Somewhere along the way they asked me to be their vocal coach, which I was totally willing to do. They were terrified. I have known Suzette since we were 12 and she is the LAST person I would ever think would sing in front of people EVER. Dorothy was pretty much the same. I kid you not, for the first several lessons I was not allowed to look at them. I had to keep my eyes closed or my back to them. But they pushed and stretched themselves into a whole new shape. When I saw the final product I sobbed. What they did was freaking incredible.
Time to get inspired Internetland. Dig it out, dust it off and totally shake it up!
No comments:
Post a Comment