Life Coaching by Eileen Lang

In the gym I blend among the forty something's but, I am not one of them. Their lives are different as they struggle to manage work outs while being a mom juggling work, homework and kid activities with dinner. I hide there until someone asks how old my kids are and then I mutter quietly that I have two 20 year olds and a 24 year old. They always seem confused about what to say and surprised that I am older than I look. I am not in their world any more. It is such a quiet world where I live “lost in between”. On a good day I am excited about the changes in my life and filled with wonderful exciting ideas. On a bad day the emptiness sometimes threatens to consume me as I struggle to master this phase.

We are out there this age group in larger forces then we know. We don’t know where we belong but, we know we are not old. We are not sure what our purpose or goals are now. We know that we are very different than our parents were at this age. We are more active and healthy than our parents were. What is out there for us and how do we redefine our purpose and goals to fit where we are in life?

A dear friend of mine rescued me from feeling down this week and reminded me the importance of have a close friend in my life. She also reminded me that this was my time now as I muttered “but, I am old now”. She smiled and said “no today you just feel old”.

Another friend looked up at me from her desk and said that she got some test results and when she looked online it said  that the condition occurred in the elderly. She is in her early 60’s and asked me “What do you consider to be elderly?” She knows she is not elderly but, she wonders where she fits in. I reassured her that I considered elderly to be people in their 80’s and 90’s.

We need our own identity and a sense of self-worth. Maybe it is time to be a force to be dealt with. There needs to be a shift in how we see our value in society.