When I was small, my grandfather read my horoscope chart and numerology. Based on the information, he told me that I would have two different types of lifestyles in this lifetime. My personal life is set to live the first half of life in Japan, and the second half of life in America, so it perfectly fits to my case.
I have also heard other elders were saying the similar things. They told me that everybody has a life turning point around the age of 40. I believe that is their wisdom that had been passed down to them from their elders, and they passed it down to me.
According to the elders’ wisdom, in the first half of our life, we tend to live our lives closely related to our parents’ expectations and the influence of the surrounding environment. We all are still pure and tend to listen to our parents, siblings, and school teachers. When we enter the latter half of our life, we start noticing that we don’t need to live our life based on others’ expectations. We will be able to honor our own feeling. We will become stronger to say No to something that we don’t need or we don’t agree with.
In my school days in Japan, I learned about the Analects of Confucius. Confucius (孔子) was a Chinese philosopher who had lived 2,500 years ago. He shared his wisdom in his latter part of his life.
子曰わく、吾十有五にして学に志す。三十にして立つ。四十にして惑わず。五十にして天命を知る。六十にして耳順(した)がう。七十にして心の欲する所に従って矩(のり)を踰(こ)えず。
Confucius said, “At 15, I set my desire to learn. At 30, I stood on own two feet. At 40, I did not have doubts on my way. At 50, I understood my life mission. At 60, I could listen to other people’s opinions without prejudice. At 70, I could pursue my heart’s desire without being contrary to morals.”
Even the wise one who had lived before us took his time to understand his life mission and his own way. So, why should we learn quicker than the wise one? I think we can take our time to understand the meaning of our life and our life mission, right?
So, I would like to give small advice to the people who are still under their 40s. Some younger people think they are useless or they are not living their lives fully.
Please trust me; I was one of you guys. Before the age of 40, I had felt the same way as you do. In my personal life, after the age of 40, I have finally started walking my own path on my own two feet.
Of course the transition was not easy. For several years before and after the age of 40, I had gone through lots of changes in my emotion, feeling, and body along with the surrounding environment. This transition will turn out to be helpful, though. With going through tough situations in the transition, we will start seeing wider visions than before.
One more small advice. Enjoy every movement, because our life is a one way path.
three wisdom 