Birthdays and Getting Perspective

Last week I had a birthday.  I turned 35.  Yes, that is 3-5, thirty-five.  35 seems old and it has hit me hard.  I've been pretty weepy the last several weeks building up to this birthday.  It just feels like...Wow...35 and I haven't done a whole lot with my life.  Hubby started naming off the laundry list of what I've done and how I should be so thankful for all of those things.  You know, the typical...you've got two beautiful children you are raising, you are the director of a prechool and keep it going, you've lived through a lot of illness and we're blessed you're with us.  What a good Hubby he is, being so supportive while his wife gets all emotional and irrational.  He's right and all of the things he says are true, but in my mind, I guess I thought I would have done something more by now.  I started to think about how in all actuality, my life is probably about half over and I haven't done enough.  There are so many things I want to do with my life.  Grand and wonderful things.  I haven't really even started on my book and I thought I'd be almost done by now.  I haven't gotten my Master's degree yet and I'm still not sure what I want to be when I grow up.  I would have thought I'd at least have figured that out by now.  So I've been moping around thinking that I'd better start crossing things off my bucket list because it's getting longer and longer and I'm not getting any younger. 
Well, God has given me a bit of perspective.  You know, the kind that slaps you right in the face and you realize that maybe your priorities are a bit screwed up.  Since this big birthday, I have begun to think of the many things I do have to be thankful for.  For starters, I have faced death not once, but twice and God has said that it wasn't my time.  He has given me this day, the only day I'm promised, the here and now.  It's what I do with it that counts.  I also have some amazing people in my life that have given words of encouragement.  As I have talked to friends about my struggle with getting older, God has given me some words.  The message has been delivered in many different ways but I leave the conversations with the same thought: Bloom Where You're Planted.  I have come to realize that God doesn't expect every day to be some dramatic experience.  It's the little things I do each day that make up my life's story.  Raising Godly children, taking care of my family, nurturing other children through the preschool, being a good listener when people need to talk and offering encouragement.  These are all things I can do to further God's kingdom and they are what's important.
So with a renewed perspective and a thankful heart, I choose to live in the now, to be thankful for my family and for where God has placed me in this moment.  I will be working toward crossing things off of my bucket list and being thankful for life's interruptions which are opportunities for ministry.  I'm going to start on my book and see where God leads.  The first 35 years have gone by pretty quickly, so I'd better make the most of the next 35 +.