Susan Boyle

I had trouble sleeping last night.  My dog woke me to go out at 3am and after that, there was no way I was getting back to sleep.  So, I tossed and turned with racing thoughts until 6am when the alarm went off. 

For some crazy reason, I thought of Susan Boyle.  You know, the latest you tube sensation from England... the one on Britain's Got Talent. I realized why it is so many of us are smitten with her. Yes, for sure, she has a great voice.  And yes, she is dowdy and completely unlike any celebrity any of us has known (admit it- you're waiting for her makeover!). But it's something more.

Yesterday was my birthday.  I won't mention my age, but suffice it to say that I have a fifteen year old son. Biological son. And I was not a teenage mother.

So you do the math.

Anyway, after poo pooing about not needing so many candles on my birthday cake, my twelve year old daughter asked me why it was that grown ups didn't like telling people their ages.  I thought for a minute and then responded that it was because the older you get, the less time you feel you have. As a kid, you're told "you have your whole life ahead of you... so much to look forward to..." But us grownups, sometimes- okay, most of the time- we just don't feel that way. It feels like the best parts of our lives are behind us. I can only speak for myself here, but I've noticed that even the little things that used to make my heart flutter a bit with excitement- a song on the radio for example- no longer do.

So to see someone like Susan Boyle, past her prime at age forty-eight doing something so extraordinary gives the rest of us hope. Maybe we didn't blow it. Maybe we didn't waste our lives, fall short of our goals. The game isn't even over yet!

Us forty and fifty and sixty-somethings still have life in us!  Okay, so I waited until now to write and publish my first book. Should I spend inordinate amounts of time regretting that I didnt do so sooner?  A resounding NO!

Hey, there are exciting days ahead! Many more books to come. Susan Boyle is proof that it's never too late. No matter how old, no matter how many gray hairs, or extra weight...it's never too late.  How comforting.