We have lift off!

Day 48 (Sunday 17th January 2016)

48 in Italian is slang for a shambles, or mess; to "succede un quarantotto" translates as
"it's going to turn into a forty-eight" but actually means "all Hell will break loose".
"Finire a carte quarantotto" means to go to the dogs or be ruined.
Painting: Gone To The Dogs by Michael Cheval

Jayne Cox, the author of today's post, is passionate about people and helping them to thrive "living life to the full and being happy"; she provides specialist coaching, supports stress management and is an Mind Fitness Trainer with a particular focus on supporting women. If you want to know more about her business check out her website Jayne Cox Consulting. She also runs a consultancy with her husband an AV specialist. Jayne is a brave lady who supports others from a space of personal knowledge and understanding, having walked her own dark path through eating disorders and self-loathing. Jayne lives near Bedford with her husband Michael, their doted on boxer (Daisy) a much loved pug (called Holly) and a collection of cats, hens and ducks. I love Jayne's joy in the life she has, the work she does and the friends she surrounds herself with. I met her via Social Media, but over the years we have got to know each other and she is a consistently caring and engaging member of my community (you can connect with her on Twitter, her handle is @JayneMCox).

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Thank you Kate for allowing me to join an amazing group of writers for your second year curating the wonderful advent blog series. I feel as if I’m sneaking in the back door as we now find ourselves in January and with the topic of ‘Coal Dust and Comet Tails’ which really did challenge my thinking.

Now I finally feel ready to release my thoughts so here goes...

Last year I watched in genuine awe and I’m not ashamed to say shed a tear, as 43 year-old Tim Peake launched into space aboard the Soyuz rocket. Chosen from 3,000 applicants and taking 7 years of preparation and rigorous training, what an achievement for what must be one of the fittest 40+ humans from earth and now living in space aboard the International Space-Station.

The Soviet Soyuz just happens to be 50 years old and had it’s first outing the year I was born, 1966. This spacecraft has launched Tim into the history books with the pride of a nation behind him all the way.

A combination of age and experience between them, 93 years to be precise, years that are respected and give them a well deserved badge of honour. The why behind this trust is quite simply that they are both tried and tested. How simply wonderful!

As an aside he seems a thoroughly nice chap and a courageous one. He’s not alone in his courage though, as we all face life’s peaks and troughs, our own tests and challenges and our own aborted missions and manual landings right here on earth.

Imagine if we looked upon age in ourselves and saw the very same awe we see in Tim. We all looked on age with this level of personal respect. If age was considered the university of life, knowledge and experience that can’t be gained any other way or fast tracked like so much of life these days.

My hope is we can look within ourselves and count our years as blessings.

So as I prepare to leave the launch pad of my 40’s I feel my own personal excitement of what to expect on my mission to 50 and far beyond. My feet may be firmly on the ground but my heart and my head often feel as if they are on the tail of a comet.

Absolutely there is coal dust coal but I always look forward to those heady flights.

Thank you major Tim and may you all fly your own comet tails this year.

Early "Happy Birthday" Jayne

The Welcome Path of Years - Day 57

Day 57 (26th January 2015)

57 - the number made famous by Henry Heinz (although at the time his company 
already had 60 products and it now sells over 5,700). He saw an advert for shoe styles 
whilst riding a train in New York in 1896 and liked the concept - 57 was chosen as it was his lucky number. 
 Heinz sells 11 billion single-serve packets of ketchup per annum (that is 2 for every person on Earth) 
Illustration - Heinz advertisement circa 1910

On realising how popular the series was becoming I planned to let the Advent Bogs cover no more than a 56 day period (the original period of Advent, which, like Lent, was a time of intermittent fasting and contemplation stretching from St Martin's Day (11th November) until Epiphany - the focus on the days of Christmas is quite recent). However, a rush of excellent late posts came in at the eleventh hour and so we are running on for a couple of extra days. What a bonus!

Today's post is by Jayne Cox who has, from almost my first days on Twitter, been a voice in my life - we often wish each other good morning and comment on one another's posts and lives. You can follow her on Twitter, her handle is @JayneMCox, or read more about her on her website where she also blogs. Jayne is a coach, she specialises in encouraging people, particularly women, to love life, to feel comfortable with who they are and to change their outlook in order to achieve their dreams. Jayne herself has overcome many hurdles (she suffered from eating disorders when younger and has coped with loss). She is an expert in supporting others with similar issues to become successful and "mind fit" people, like she herself has become. She lives with her husband Michael and a menagerie of animals including Daisie their boxer, Holly their pug and a collection cats, ducks and hens.

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I’d like to thank Kate for giving me an opportunity to be part of the Advent series of blogs and what wonderful company I’ve found myself in.

We have followed some wonderful paths in the Advent Blogs series

I often write and tweet about living life to the full and appreciating the smallest of things and I do genuinely mean it. I see life as a gift and age is testimony to the time spent living and learning. 

As I approach my 49th Birthday I did a virtual crumple of 3 previous ideas and decided to take this new path, encouraged by a twitter conversation with Hope and Sam this morning. Thanks to you both and here’s the blog I promised, fresh off the press.

The path to this age and these almost 49 years is one I feel proud to be taking, I’m eternally grateful that in my 20’s I had the opportunity to begin my recovery from anorexia nervosa. Misunderstood then and now it’s been in life since the moment of diagnosis, now it’s part of my life professionally. A troubled child and young woman, the paths I’ve taken bring me to now and I can’t help loving my years.

At times a difficult path

Society seems to fight against age, anti-ageing and fearful that age is some kind of illness, a reflection of less. I find this odd when I see it as so much more. When your life was once looking limited, I suppose it really does take on new meaning.  

Unhappy memories of abuse in my past seem far behind me, as the years have been generous and given me resilience, courage, hope and a voice once stifled. Age has given me not only a voice but a choice. In my youth I would have given my last breath just to be liked. Today I understand that I need to choose my company wisely and with me in mind. Yes making sometimes tough decisions to stay or walk away.

So 2015 also finds me taking a new path with not just me running my own business but supporting my husband Michael to do the same. An illness that rocked our world in 2013 prompted us both to take stock and look at what we were putting off until tomorrow. We realised that our tomorrow could actually become our today and our life experiences made us take action.

"Never put off till tomorrow the fun you can have today." Aldous Huxley

No we don’t believe age has to be grey, dull and unexciting. Age is now, vibrant and a time of great opportunity. Imagine believing that the best was yet to come?

If you like the idea of enjoying your numbers rather than fighting them, join us on Twitter with #LovingOURYears and share your words of encouragement and celebration.

My warmest wishes for a happy and healthy 2015

Jayne

Jayne Cox

In celebration of us older ladies

"Older Ladies" by Donnalou Stevens