Dear Stephanie,Right now you are 32 years old. I am fifty two. I figure that those two extra decades give me license to dispense advice willy nilly. So here it is.
Right now you will never be more beatiful than you are. Be grateful for the body you have. Not so much father down the road you will wish you had appreciated it more. Instead of ruing belly flab you'll be lamenting achy joints. Instead of complaining of acne you'll be fighting osteoporosis. Just get over yourself now and get on to the business of enjoying life.
Your kids are now out of the house. I can see what they've become, but I won't tell you. Ha. Instead, make sure they don't have too many reasons to resent you (they will have some! hee, hee) and make sure they have good therapists. Don't teach them the lessons that anyone can learn. Teach them the lessons that very few children will learn and they will be successful.
If you think sex is good now, it gets even better with age. :)
Make each week an adventure. I'd say each day, but too much adventure can be tiresome. Challenge yourself to do things you hate so you can grow. On the other hand, life is too short to eat nasty food, so don't worry if you don't like raw carrots like everybody else.
Sometimes there are things you have to do in life for no other reason than to do them. Finishing a job is a lesson itself.
Continue to read CNN.com, your bodice rippers, your philosophy books, and your history books. It will continue to make you happy.
Don't let fear hold you back. Life is too short. I'm here on the back end of it, and I want to make sure you make choices that will set me up for happiness in my fifth decade of life. I don't want to be sitting here with lots of regrets.
You can't take it with you, except possibly your Dior sunglasses.
Treat others with love and kindness and respect. You will fail at this, many times over, but you need to keep trying. Sometimes you can be a hot-tempered be-atch, but truthfully the world already has its quota of those. Work on being understanding.
Finish your novel. Don't find an excuse to not work on it. Do a little bit every week. Your characters can only find their lives and voices through you. Don't let them stay trapped in your imagination.
Finally, remember what a cool person you are. You're the shiz. The bees knees. The midnight train to Georgia. You're the bomb dot com, to use some phrases from your era.
Make me proud.
--Stef
