{Image: Summer Solstice Moon Henge by Lucy Minhinnick}

{Taken from the book ‘things to do now that you’re… 40’}

1.  Do something scandalous that will shock your descendants one day.

2.  Go traveling with a backpack and just one change of clothes.  Explore off the beaten track, eat local food and enjoy the simple life.
3.  Ride on an elephant.
4.  Spread a map on the table, close your eyes and point.  You’ve just decided on your next holiday destination.
5.  Put a message in a bottle & throw it out to sea.
6.  Take a vacation on your own at least once.

7.  Have a mid-life adventure instead of a mid-life crisis.

8.  Buy a juicer and make your own fresh juices (but try to get someone else to clean it!)
9.  Have your colour chart done and buy something in the colour that suits you best.
10.  Adopt a defining characteristic that people can describe you by.
11.  Eat your breakfast outdoors in summer.

12.  Be grateful that wrinkles don’t hurt!

13.  Stand outside in a torrential rainstorm until you are soaked to the skin.
14.  Swim with dolphins.
15.  Lie on your back and watch the clouds with someone.  Find pictures in them.
16.  Find a fairy ring and make a wish.
17.  Go to a flower market first thing in the morning and find one perfect bloom.

18.  Know that you’re never too old for a water fight, a toboggan ride or a bounce on the trampoline.

19.  Try to see the aurora borealis.
20.  Try to finish any projects you’ve started then set aside.  Either that or throw them away.
21.  Acquire a hobby that gives you pleasure.
22.  Stop striving for things that you know you cannot possibly attain.
23.  Try to see the originals of your favourite paintings wherever they are hung.

24.  Learn how to spend a whole day reading a novel without feeling guilty.

25.  Read The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams.  If you’ve read it already, read it again.
26.  Realize that you don’t need to impress anyone except yourself anymore.
27.  Visit a sacred site at the Summer Solstice and light some candles.
28.  Attend the birth of a new baby.  Savor the introduction of new life.
29.  Keep asking those unanswerable questions.

30.  Steer clear of people who scoff at your dreams.

31.  Do something your friends would consider totally out of character.
32.  Develop a habit of complimenting friends on something every time you see them.
33.  Make sure there is someone in your life that you can call at 3 a.m.
34.  Ask each of your friends to teach you one new thing.
35.  Walk barefoot through soft, warm mud.
36.  Take a moment to count all the different shades of green outside.
37.  Learn a foreign language, visit a country where it is spoken and only speak in the new language the entire time you are there.

38.  Own at least one object simply because it is beautiful.

39.  Take up Tai Chi.
40.  Know that love matters more than anything else.

Each item in this list spoke to me.
Some I do already and plan on doing for years to come.  Others will have to wait a little longer (I really want to attend the birth of one of my children’s babies, so I’ve got a few years to wait there!).  Some will take effort and others can be done now.
Little things and big things to enrich, change and challenge us, now that we are the big 4-0.

How many do you do already?

Which ones would you love to do?

And what else would you add to your list?

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