Damn, we had a lot of fun.  You always embraced life: took the vacation, drank the good wine, prioritized experiences over things.  Ever since you were young, you loved that saying:

The best things in life aren’t things.

Sometimes you let your self-doubts and the pressures of society creep in and make you feel lesser, but you recognized those times and tried to push back; tried to find that balance between living in the world as it is v. as it should be.

You may be questioning your accomplishments.  Did you achieve enough?  Impact enough change?

You did.

The measure of a life is a tricky thing, but the ripples you created and the web of impact is wide.  You always made time for people: family, friends, colleagues.  You weren’t afraid to get personal, to share pieces of yourself, like generous, moist slices of a triple-decker birthday cake.  You loved hearing and telling stories and saw them as gifts.

Because the best gifts you could receive were a sense of belonging and connection, which can only come through sharing: open, authentic, real.

You loved to laugh, at yourself especially.

When you were feeling unbalanced, the best cures were often:

• Exercise: especially a walk outside
• A moment to write and reflect
• A conversation with someone who made you feel seen and heard

So as you age, keep chasing the feelings.  Beauty has many forms and they don’t all look like the size 2 “ageless” actress in your social media feed.  Curate your perspective with purpose.  Reinforce the image, priorities, and joy that you want.  You deserve it.  All of it.

And if those years in the sun catch up to you, you earned those consequences.  You loved the sun.  The beach was your happy place: lounging with a cold IPA, a magazine and a portable speaker playing Brandi Carlile.

Take care of yourself.  People need you.  As a small child, you used to be so fearful of death that you would pray every night, asking God to let you live a “long, long, long, long, long….” (and you would continue until eventually your alternative method of ‘counting sheep’ put you to sleep).  Keep that zest for life.

Surround yourself with good people.  Have the cake, and eat it too.  You’ve earned it.