Stop the press!

Right after I wrote yesterday that people want to relive their 40s more than any other decade, I learned that life gets better after 50.  How is this possible?  If your 50s are noticeably better than your 40s, wouldn’t everyone say that they want to relive their 50s?

According to the article:

Academics have found increasing evidence that happiness through adulthood is U-shaped – life satisfaction falls in our 20s and 30s, then hits a trough in our late 40s before increasing until our 80s.

I like the idea of life being U-shaped; of happiness dipping and then rising.  It makes what lies ahead that much more enticing rather than thinking that things are downhill from here.  Down here, nearing the “trough,” is okay.  It fills me with hope to hear that it’s only going to get better.

Though apparently I will first travel through an emotional slump in my late 40s caused by — according to the research — nothing.  Unless it’s caused by something.  But I will only the notice the nothing if everything else is going smoothly.  According to the author, “Those most likely to notice the arrow of time are the people without a lot of other change or difficulty in their life.”

Hmmm.

I have two more years until I hit the nadir — 46.  And while research points out that events later in life such as dealing with health issues, deaths, job loss, or empty nests affects people emotionally, when life is still, we’ll feel happier in the stillness.

It’s a very interesting article about why we feel happier in our 50s and beyond, so read the whole thing when you have the time.

Does it ring true to you?  That happiness increases in your 50s and beyond?

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

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The New York Times recently had a piece about surviving your 40s.  My 40s have been interesting; something initially dreaded and now embraced.  I am sure I will also be dragged kicking and screaming into 50, but I am happy to be a few days into being 44, not least of which because the number is the same backwards as forwards.

The article asks: “What exactly is this not-young age? I hear people in their 20s describe the 40s as a far-off decade of too-late, when they’ll regret things that they haven’t done. But for older people I meet, the 40s are the decade that they would most like to travel back to.”

It’s an interesting idea to be living the decade you’ll most want to return to live again.  It makes you more mindful to slow down and drink in the moments because they are apparently as good as it gets.

Mostly, I like the essay for these lines: “What is a grown-up anyway? Do they really exist? If so, what exactly do they know? Will my mind ever catch up with my face?”

What is a grown-up?  And are you one?

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Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts that are connected to businesses or are sponsored post.

Josh got me a real, live, immortal quokka* for my 44th birthday.  Technically, he needs to keep living his immortal life in western Australia, but he’s totally mine.  And I’m his.  And his name is Akiva.

But I call him “Keevs” for short.

We got him from the World Wildlife Fund.  Apparently they believe this is just a monetary donation and they’ve given Josh a certificate in return.  BUT NOPE.  He is totally mine.  I have his picture up on the refrigerator, and I’ve been filling in his back story; how he spends his days and the fun we’ll have together when I finally get to Rottnest Island so I can watch him frolicking with his quokka friends.

So Akiva will live forever in Rottnest Island, and I will bore the family forever with imagined tales of Avika’s hijinks.

I LOVE MY QUOKKA.

This is the best birthday ever.  Happy birthday to meeeeeeeeee.  (And Akiva, who is an extension of my heart.  I love my quokka so much.)

* World Wildlife Fund said they couldn’t put status of his immortality on the certificate itself, but they let Josh add it to the message so I have it formally in writing because I hate the idea of being given something that will die.  My quokka will never die.

One of my books is on sale for the first two weeks of June on all platforms, and it’s for the best reason EVER.  (Okay, maybe not ever, but it’s a really cool reason.)  Apart at the Seams is on sale for $1.99 from June 1st to June 15th because June 13th is National Sewing Machine Day.  There is a whole day on the calendar to celebrate sewing machines.  We live in an amazing world.

So head over to your favourite place to get books and pick up Apart at the Seams for two dollars.  Technically under two dollars.  You can’t even get a spool of thread for that price.

Please help me spread word.

And the twins’ book was chosen by Amazon to be one of their Summer Toy List picks!  They get a super neat badge above the book name.

Hello Scratch! is on their STEM in the Summer list.  Amazon’s explanation:

STEM toys go beyond the classroom and after the school year to educate and excite kids of all ages. STEM toys encourage kids to learn and develop skills in the core disciplines of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The 2018 Summer Toy List captures the best STEM toys which have clear goals and encourage kids to learn and continue developing STEM skills while having fun during the summer. Keep your kids learning this summer by using the Amazon 2018 Summer Toy List where you can explore hundreds of this year’s top STEM toys.

I am so freakin’ proud of them.  Their book rocks AND teaches basic computer science concepts AND how to make retro video games.  And they indulge me in my Yahtzee obsession.  They really are cool kids.

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Stop procrastinating.  Go make your backups.  Don’t have regrets.

Seriously.  Stop what you’re doing for a moment.  It will take you fifteen minutes, tops.  But you will have peace of mind for days and days.  It’s the gift to yourself that keeps on giving.

As always, add any new thoughts to the Friday Backup post and peruse new comments in order to find out about methods, plug-ins, and devices that help you quickly back up your data and accounts.

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And now the blogs…

But first, second helpings of the posts that appeared in the open comment thread last week.  In order to read the description before clicking over, please return to the open thread:

• CIO Citizen, which is the awesome Facebook project of an ALI blogger
• “MicroblogMondays: Santa Cruz” (Searching for Our Silver Lining)
• “Gifts of Infertility Series #25 – A Reminder of What is Important” (No Kidding in NZ)

Okay, now my choices this week.

Constant in the Darkness has a post about how infertility colours our experience.  She sees a child wearing a t-shirt that reads: Bio Kid.  Guess where her mind (and my mind!) went…

The Road Less Travelled has a hard post about what is always a hard time of year.  20 years ago this month, she was happily pregnant with Katie.  20 years later, she is delaying travel plans to care for her ill father-in-law.  She writes, “On the bright (?) side — I was fretting that by taking vacation in early August, we would not be here for Katie’s milestone 20th ‘anniversary’ dates. Be careful what you wish for, right?” Sending a lot of love.

Lastly, My Path to Mommyhood has a post about what it means to look forward when you know you need to honour and remember what came before.  She explains, “Immerse is the key word — you can visit, you can reflect, but you can’t be a functioning, forward-thinking, forward-planning person if you are forever immersed in the events of your past.”  It’s a beautiful post about getting to a place where you can “celebrate the life you have and not the one you were denied for inexplicable reasons.”

The roundup to the Roundup: Apart at the Seams is on sale AND the twins’ book, Hello Scratch, is being featured by Amazon.  Your weekly backup nudge.  And lots of great posts to read.  So what did you find this week?  Please use a permalink to the blog post (written between May 25th and June 1st) and not the blog’s main url. Not understanding why I’m asking you what you found this week?  Read the original open thread post here.

An art exhibit opened downtime a month or two ago featuring the art of Burning Man.  I don’t have a lot of interest in Burning Man itself, but I am very interested in seeing Candy Chang’s piece called “Before I Die,” which is part of the exhibit.

The piece came out of a time in life when she was grappling with a loved one’s death:

She wanted to start a conversation, so she covered a crumbling house in her neighborhood in New Orleans with chalkboard paint and stenciled it with the prompt, “Before I die I want to _____,” so anyone walking by could pick up a piece of chalk, reflect on death and life, and share their personal aspirations in public.

Answering the question really becomes talking about life.  What you want to do while you’re here on this planet.  And the best part is that there are no wrong answers.  Well… I mean… I guess if you said you aspire to pollute all the oceans before you die, people might feel that answer crosses the line.  BUT almost everything else.

There are now 4000 Before I Die walls around the world, and you can click over to see pictures of the original one in New Orleans.

Before I die, I want to see how the twins turn out as adults.  I want to visit the Faroe Islands.  I want to give a TED Talk.  I want to hold a puffin.  (And I want the puffin to want to be held so it cuddles into the crook of my arm.)  I want to take a class with Josh.  I want someone to tell me that I’ve always reminded them of the title character from “Really Rosie.”

What do you want to do while you’re alive?