When something is persistent, or insistent, it is demands  attention.  It sort of  puts it out there, and then it either happens, or we move on.  If it’s meant to be, it  lasts, and if not, then we  don’t begin   again… we move on.   We don’t  have time for all that.

 Fifty  sort of teaches you that . If you are where you are,  you are supposed to be there.   And if  you  can’t hang,  then   you need to try  something  else.  Yet if you have  “sticktu-tiveness”…, you HANG….  You manage it.  And you DEAL.  It’s one of those  “grown  folks”  adages.  Now,  considering all with common  sense, you   don’t  stay in something that   HARMS YOU.   Or  abuses  you.  Or  robs you of your  dignity.   YOU STAY WHEN it helps you to GROW.  You endure.  You knock it out    And you  BRING IT.

Because sometimes the things  that  GROW us.  MAKE US. Guess I’ve finally decided in my life I want to just keep getting better and better. So I have to put in the work.

When you meant  to say something, you say it.  When you mean to  do it, you  do it. You   don’t  hold back, you   are emphatic.  That means  as  the  free  dictionary states: “you stand out in a striking (ly)  and   clearly defined way.”

It appears for me, at least  when you get to  fifty you have that understanding.  You know, the one  that  really just says:   “What will be, shall be.”  Yet  you know you can’t  fool around. You have to come  full force.  You  have to  come  completely, adeptly, and you cannot  “half- ass it.”  *( Yeah,  I said that…)  You  know that really isn’t  a curse word, its just  a  form of being.  I know someone in my life who  told me  a long time  ago –  ( name forbidden….)   that  I “half- assed” it –  all the  time. I don’t know tha I necessarily agreed but I could have done better. For sure.  I think   “fifty ” simply  gives you full knowledge if you  have  come to that place and you   realize  WHEN need to do more.   You also realize  when OTHERS need to do more.

Should you always  tell them? (a resounding,  &  emphatic….)  No!

Why?  Because its not always your job to tell them.   Sometimes telling them could damage the  relationship.  That’ s where  wisdom  comes in.   And discretion.   Discretion involves planning and   being  discreet. It means you have made some  similar  mistakes in the past, and paid for them.  And you decided  to  turn from that way, and  try  something NEW.

There was a time in my life  I  thought I really knew someone had taken something from me. It was a  teenager.  And  I practically  knew it could have been no one BUT her. (  I had  even devised a  scenario in my mind, where I confronted her, and  she   would give in and admit  she did it!)  I  even  walked out  that scenario. Only to come to  the end of that  vision, and  find out I was absolutely WRONG.  I  was not  wrong  when I confronted her , either.   I  was  wrong  AFTER  I confronted her,  went back home, and  then  found what I thought was stolen.   My  pride got in the  way.

I  thought I  just knew  everything, back then.  And I walked it out because I just “knew”  I was right.  But boy, was I wrong.

Yes , indeed. 

Taught me a lesson in  living.

And taught me I was not God,, so I  would never be completely  right,  even when I  thought I was.  Selah.

My head  was SO, SO  Big,  back then.   But I learned my lesson.  Sometimes life is  about lessons .  Not knowing it all.

Hmmm….

My  fifty years sometimes  takes me back to that moment , and I realize that I have to give everyone  the benefit of the doubt, because  sometimes there’s so much more to know.

 Hang out with me  as I share wisdom  for the   days…  I am  counting  down to  my  Fifty days of   Fifty  years old by writing   about   how  I know I have arrived.  Join me at  #50DaysToFifty  hashtag on Instagram or   Facebook.