Invited Back

This month, I turned forty.

Like many milestone birthdays, it has invited me into a season of reflection. We often treat the changing of a decade as though it marks the end of one person and the beginning of another, but that isn’t how this feels to me.

I carry the younger version of myself into this new decade: the dreamer, the risk-taker, the woman who said yes before she knew exactly how it would all work out. I also carry the woman shaped by disappointment, grief, unexpected joy, restoration, and quiet faithfulness. I wouldn’t trade either of them. They both belong here reminding me that growth rarely happens the way we imagine it will.

This year will undoubtedly hold significant milestones. There will be moments worth celebrating, opportunities I cannot yet see, dreams fulfilled, and new challenges waiting just beyond the horizon. Yet woven between all of those moments will be the beautiful ordinariness of everyday life: early mornings before the house wakes up, conversations around the dinner table, school schedules, work meetings, long to-do lists, practices, emails, and the countless routines that rarely feel remarkable while we’re living them.

It is these ordinary moments that sustain me.

Read more on Substack:

https://sabethkapahu.substack.com/p/forty

https://open.substack.com/pub/sabethkapahu/p/to-the-woman-in-the-middle?r=1fptkd&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true