Mid Life Identity Crisis

While I was updating this blog to enter the new decade, and to perhaps inspire me to be more consistent about stretching my writing muscles, I found myself stumped by one of the profile prompts:

"About Me"

That really should have been an easy question. I should have easily written wife, mother, employee, Christian, dog lover or some basic information. However I could not think of what I wanted to say to the world (or cyberspace since no one really reads this blog) about me. This simple question brought together a lot of the thoughts that have been rotating around each other in my brain.

I have spent 20 years raising my children and will be an empty-nester in two more years. I have worked at the same job for 12 years and have lived in the same town for 30 years. I have been married for 20 years (just not to the same person). While I realize the value of the time I have spent pursuing these endeavors, I am hoping that there is something different for me around the corner. It is a bit unsettling, almost like being 18 again with so many possibilities that I am having a hard time focusing on what my next steps will be.

I want to focus on God's best plan for me (I spent a good many years focusing on MY best plan and that didn't work out so well). I wish that God had a website where you could login with your unique user ID and select from a few life choices choices that he has given His Stamp of Approval. Once you clicked on the link, a carefully explained map would download to your desktop. Right now I have so many things competing for focus that it is hard to "download the right map."

Is this a "mid-life crisis"? I have no plans to purchase an outrageously expensive sports car, have liposuction or buy a farmhouse in Tuscany (although actually all of those things do sound a bit appealing). However I do want to make the second half of my life purposeful and meaningful. What that will actually look like is waiting to unfold.