The final countdown...

Okay, well it's not the FINAL countdown...but the countdown has begun for me. In less than a month I leave for my Paris vacation. This is significant for me on a few levels. Firstly, it's my 40th birthday present to myself. Secondly, it's the one place that I have always dreamed of going. Thirdly, this will be my first big serious trip by myself. 

Paris to me, (as I am sure it does to many people) represents a lot of the things that I love - literature, art, food, architecture, history. I am hoping that it can live up to my lofty expectations. I am looking forward to being in the middle of all these things and just soaking it all up.

And there is part of the trip that represents something else to me. This past year for me had been challenging. It has been an amazing learning experience - I have learned more about myself in this past year than I have in the past 10 years. This trip for me is almost an ending and beginning. 

Turning 40, in my mind at least, is a significant milestone. And this trip represents me starting a whole new chapter of my life. A life where I am in charge of my destiny. In the past, I have let people make decisions for me. I have been led in directions that I may not have really wanted to go. So it's time for me to reflect on this chapter of my life, and get ready to close the book on it. And it's time for me to look forward to the next chapter, and decide what it is that I want out of life, and who it is that I want to be.

The pic today is from my trip last year to Amsterdam. It was taken outside the Three Sisters Restaurant. When I see this picture I smile.