“Thus, though we cannot make our sun stand still, yet we will make him run.” – Andrew Marvell

Let me give you a break from government and provide you with some actual news. I turn 40 this week.

How should I feel about this development?

Well, there are many people in this world who are driven by time and goals. Their worth is tied to finishing ahead of the pack – college degree by age 21, married by 25, homeowner by 28, 2.5 kids by 33, company partner by 35.

I ain’t one of these people.

While it would be convenient for me to say I do not think it is healthy to tie your self-worth to reaching material or social goals by certain ages, it would be less than honest. Truthfully, time and age just never have concerned me much.

On a day-to-day level, friends and family can tell you showing up on time is just fine for me. I try to be conscientious about not being late, as I value other people’s time, but showing up early seems like a waste of my own time.

Even looking at time in the big picture, I have always had the sense that God will guide me to the right place when it is the moment is right. This is not to imply I have never grown impatient with my personal story arc but remaining nonchalant about the process has been my North Star.

Despite all my bravado about time, I am begrudgingly forced to take stock of my situation as I reach the approximate halfway point of bumming around on this giant, blue marble.

The folly of youth is always assuming you will remain young. Some days I find it weird I am considered fully an adult. Working on a college campus, I have only recently shook the impression I could be mistaken for a typical undergraduate student, and, beloved reader, there has been no danger of that for quite some time.

I always hear people of all ages say, when discussing their age, “Most days I don’t FEEL old.” This is true for me, as well. Outside of colds and congestion hanging on a few days longer than they used to do and throwing out my back for the first time simply by bending down to pick up my daughter, late 30s do not physically feel much different than 25.

On the other hand, my appearance is subtly changing. Hair is thinning on top while simultaneously growing in everywhere else – including ears, for reasons I will never understand. My wife will gleefully point out where some strands are looking gray, and I still halfheartedly try to explain those hairs must just be sun-bleached.

I have even reached the odd stage where wrinkles and zits are now both a reality.

Nevertheless, I believe the biggest transformation for people my age is realizing how much the way you think about the world and the people in it have changed.

From childhood through young adulthood, you assume the grown-ups understand the world and know what to do in every situation. It is only when you get to be an adult do you realize the grown-ups are only making their best guesses for what to do in any given situation and hoping for the best.

Even the people who look and sound the most put-together have their own flaws, biases and doubts. Many people find it frightening we live in a world of semi-ordered chaos with imperfect leaders. Maybe we should try to hold on tightly to the few things we know and can control and ride this lifetime out as best we can.

Conversely, my main lesson from the last decade has been to embrace the chaos. Try to make a difference in the world whenever you can, but keep moving forward no matter what may come.

The old saying is time is like sand, the more you try to hold it tightly, the more it slips through your fingers. We cannot keep things as they are, so be open to embracing both the sweetness and the bitterness of what is to come. I know this is easier to say than to do, but whether you are ahead of me or behind me on this journey, don’t let the past rob your present. The magic lies in always looking forward to what is around the next bend of the river, even if what is around the bend includes mailers suggesting you join AARP.