Marianne Williamson’s Natural Awakenings article this month, “The Miracle of Midlife,” gives us reason to pause. She asks, “How would we live were we not afraid of death?” As Lydia Brontë observes in The Longevity Factor, modernity has added 15 years to the middle part of our lives, redefining the parameters of age. I love how Williamson concludes that you and I now have the privilege of viewing the first half of our life as preparation for an even more productive and satisfying second half. Midlife is like a second puberty and rebirth, the time to fully blossom. “Whomever it is we were born to be, whatever our soul was coded to accomplish, whatever lessons we are here to learn; now is the time to seriously get going,“ she advises.

In September, I celebrated my 43rd birthday, and I confess to a less than gracious acceptance of the milestone. That night friends took me out to celebrate and, to make me feel better, we decided to have some fun by telling people that I was 10 years younger. For me, it had the opposite and unexpected effect of feeling so inauthentic that it just didn’t fit. I realized that I have no desire to be 33 again, because each year of the past decade is precious to me, just the way it is. During this time, I became a mother, found my calling in publishing this magazine and have grown in countless ways. With the wondrous realization that I love the person I have become, I have embraced myself with an openhearted acceptance not experienced since I was a child.

As Williamson points out, “We may regret we are no longer young, but we’re ecstatic that we’re no longer clueless.” This recent experience has given me a renewed sense of the preciousness of each day’s adventure and the importance of shedding any negativity and dysfunction in our lives. I anticipate living each day with love, gratitude and higher purpose, eagerly embracing the second part of the journey.

In celebration of living fully,

Gabriella Buchnik, Publisher