The awesomeness of middle age vs trying to stay young!

I had an idea for my next blog topic shortly after turning out the lights last night.  I lay there and wrote half the blog in my mind, and thought I really should get up and write this down.
It was witty and clever and some really good stuff.  Then I thought no, this is good, I'll remember it and improve on it in the morning when I am more awake.  So, now it's morning and I can't even remember the topic I was planning on.  Is this old age?  Oh wait that reminds me, it had something to do with being middle aged....perhaps it was something to do with memory or lack thereof?  Although my memory went as soon as I had kids, so I totally blame them.

Well since I am not sure what it was I wanted to say I am just going to go ahead and tell you the awesome things I have found about being middle aged.  Yes, at 40 I have finally admitted I am now middle aged.

I'm no longer afraid.  I don't care as much what people will think of me, obviously I don't want to come across to my kids friends parents as a complete loser (so yes, sometimes I have to try and pretend I am grown up and responsible), but in general, there is not this fear of OMG I have an image I have to keep up.  If you don't like what I do and say then go and stuff it.  I am a lot more secure about who I am and what I want.

My friends are no longer dictated by who is in the "in crowd" (not that I ever was, hence my friends mostly never were), but now I know that those things no longer count so I don't feel bad about it, I am better than anyone who was ever in the in crowd.  I have handpicked my friends, or maybe in some cases they picked me, or in others, I think we just stumbled into one another and stuck.  But whatever happened they are pretty awesome.

I am the fittest I have ever been.  Yes I still have along way to go, but I do 5km at least three times a week, and more now than even when I was training up on my swimming for my dive master course. This is the most I have ever done and the longest I have ever stuck with any sort of fitness regime.

Image by dustmans 

Oh, would you look at that, I just remembered something about what I wanted to write....it was about my hair and all the grey in it, and how I used to dye it to be different, and now I dye it to try and stay young......maybe my blog should have been about trying to stay young instead of the awesomeness of middle age.  Wow, now there are two conflicting thoughts? 

So I guess the question that stems from this is do we try to stay young? Do we embrace middle age? Or do we find a happy medium in between?  At this point I am trying to stay young by looking my best and feeling my best in years, but I embrace the wisdom and peace (was going to say maturity - but judging by some our parties lately I will refrain from using that word) that my 40's have brought me.

Right now I am off to dye my hair purple....and not your Grandmothers purple, but rather a nice wicked shade of dark purple!  In my mind I am still 29 and staying that age anyway!