Day 14: Four Months From 50

Today is January 14 (again, my brilliance at calendar reading is impressive I know). What that means is that my 50th birthday is exactly 4 months from today.

And, while I am not exactly celebrating that fact, I am celebrating the completion of another chapter of our book!!! This is Chapter 11: World War II and Post WWII Agriculture in Los Angeles. I have sent the draft off to my writing partner Rachel and am hoping that it is as interesting (and hopefully coherent) to her, as it is to me and that in turn, once the whole book is done, it is interesting to other people too.

As I have been working, often until midnight or 1 a.m. while still getting up by 8 a.m., getting crankier and crankier, while my hands and wrists alternate between aching and numbness (yeah, been ignoring that for 20 years), I am ironically feeling happier and happier.

This got me to thinking and I realized that when I was younger, I never thought about work as something that was fun or that could make you happy. It was just something that you did to earn a living. And, I never thought that as I was approaching 50, that I would be looking forward to more years of working. I always thought I'd be ready to stop. But, I am not. I want to keep going, keep learning more and keep writing.

Because I have been pretty much writing/researching/etc. nonstop for the past three days, I thought I'd let some of my favorite quotes about finding and using your passion express how I am feeling. 

 "Don't ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive.  And then go and do that.  Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."  ~Attributed to Howard Thurman, author and philosopher 

"Chase down your passion like it's the last bus of the night." ~Terri Guillemets, creator of the Quote Garden

"One can never consent to creep when one feels the impulse to soar."~ Helen Keller 

"Trust not what inspires other members of society to choose a career. Trust what inspires you.” ~The Lazy Person’s Guide to Success

Kind of expresses how I am feeling tonight!