Hard.

Midlife is hard because we’ve managed hard stuff.

The grief of a lost loved one. The wait of an unrealized dream. The loss of a broken relationship.

Midlife is tough because we’ve navigated tough times.

An unwelcome economic reality. An unabashed faith crisis. An unexpected medical diagnosis.

Midlife is work because we’ve recognized we’re living works. 

We’ve exercised wise judgment and made poor choices. We’ve won personal victories and endured painful defeats. We've cried hard because we’ve loved even harder.

Midlife is contradictory because we’re living a mixed-up experience.

The young adult drifting without purpose while the purposeful elder suffers in pain. The old friend fading away and the new friend mercifully appearing. The shapes of age creeping in and the signs of youth falling away.

But Midlife is actually delicious because we see beauty in this life.

The gathering with the next generation whose laughter is still pure. The laying of the cornerstones for a more hopeful, gentler second half. The celebrating of turned pages, new chapters and finish lines crossed.

Friends, Midlife is all these things, ground up and poured out across our everydays. Midlife salts our big and small moments and flavors our seasons of want and of plenty. 

Midlifers, we are rich with experience but not yet fully baked.

What a glorious dish we are indeed, my fellow Midlifers. May you find respite in this moment from your weary Midlife trials. 

I pray a prayer of hopefulness and send words of peace to your tables. Midlife is many things - tough, mixed-up yet somehow, thanks be to God, still delicious. 

Bon appetit, Midlifers. Bland simply is not on the menu.