This post was inspired by Shelly Mazzanoble, who wrote what I can only describe as a psychologically healthy take on aging.

I turned 40 today.  It's been a tough year.  I've been through five outpatient surgeries (and have the scars to prove it!) and experienced a range of emotional losses, including the death of my twenty-year old cat Maya. My role-playing campaign ended and with it friendships of over twenty years. Our house has been under construction, so I've been sleeping on a cot on the first floor of my house for the past three months. I spent the last two weeks on and off traveling for business under very stressful circumstances. When I got back, our house lost power thanks Hurricane Sandy and we lived in fear that our basement would flood, which is also where all our earthly possessions happen to be stored. For the past forty-eight hours our alarm system died a slow, noisy death, chirping from every corner of the house.  When I was wrestling with a port-a-potty in the middle of a hurricane, it makes one consider one's life choices.

But I also turned 40 today! I am in good health – my blood pressure is low, although I'm still working on my cholesterol. My gut problems turned out to be entirely stress-related and once I figured that out they went away. I have three published books under my belt (not counting my role-playing game publications and articles) and finally achieved my dream of seeing my fantasy fiction in print. I participated in the Dungeons & Dragons Documentary and helped it succeed as a Kickstarter. I have a smart, practical, sexy wife who is a fantastic mother to our two beautiful, bright children that keep me on my toes every day. We will soon have a house that can actually comfortably accommodate all of us. I started a new role-playing game campaign online and reconnected with friends all over the continent from over twenty years ago.  This year at work I launched an iPad app for recruiting university students and a web site dedicated to helping U.S. military veterans get a job.

Despite all this, I'm still not completely satisfied and I doubt I ever will be.  I'm on the hook to write a trilogy for my fiction series but way behind in writing it. Professionally, I hope to continue moving onward and upward – the fact that I just spent a week at work training by playing role-playing games is a sign that I'm on the right path. I don't have as much time to for my hobbies as I would like (I read an entire book during the blackout!).  But I suspect this is the curse of the busy.

On the third day of the blackout, on Halloween, I sarcastically shouted "Happy Birthday to me!" Then the lights came back on.  Message received. 

Happy Birthday to me. :)