You may have heard me refer to my “Second Act” a couple of times… thought it might not be a bad idea to let you in on what that actually means to me!

I used to try to hide my age, thinking that the only way this dream of mine was going to happen was to get in under the wire before my face betrays me too much. That was 15 years ago, and while I still get the wonderful person who is “shocked” when I tell them how old I am, I feel like I’m being false if I’m not open about who I am. I am a 45 year old wife (of 23 years and counting) and mother of 3 wonderful kids, the oldest of which just turned 21. Her twin sisters are 18 and graduated high school last year (2021). I thank God for the family we have… I never had to work full-time once the kids were born, so I could focus on being there for them when they needed me the most. That was my “Act 1”.

The twins were just toddlers when I got my vision of what God wanted me to do with my life. Being 29, fairly naive, and just plain stupid, I thought that since God was telling me to be a singer, He would make it happen right away! I wasn’t as familiar with the stories of Joseph, King David, and the apostle Paul as I am now, so the thought that this would be something that I’d have to spend the better part of 2 decades working towards didn’t even occur to me. (In case you also aren’t familiar with those stories, God gave all 3 of them a vision and a purpose which wasn’t fully realized until much later, after many trials and steep learning curves.) It took me almost 10 years to began to realize that while God gave me a purpose to work toward, He also gave me an immediate purpose, and that was raising my kids! I’m a little slow on the uptake sometimes.

Life isn’t just about a singular end goal… It’s everything. While I was pouting and throwing my temper tantrums about having to wait for my career to take off, I was blind to the most important job a mother could ever do! If I had “made it big” when I was 30, I wouldn’t have been there all that time with my girls! I couldn’t appreciate how much of a gift I had been given at first because, let’s face it, raising little kids is hard and tedious work. I didn’t appreciate that I was able to make breakfast every day for them when they were little because I was exhausted and didn’t want to get out of bed at 6:30! But now, I see what those years gave us all. My Act 1 was the most important part of my life because no matter what happens with my career, I’ll always have my children. Their friends spend time at our house regularly, and more than one has commented on how strange it is that we all get along and actually want to talk to each other. 1. How sad is that for them?, and 2. How blessed are we?!

That leads me to the present, and my Act 2. All of my kids are out of high school, have decent jobs (as far as entry level positions go), and have goals for their future. There was a nugget of wisdom that I received from a good friend when the girls were little, (Thank you, Christine!)… My job as a mother is to make my job obsolete. That simple piece of advice has helped our kids so much! It’s not that they won’t need me or want me around anymore, it’s that they’ll be able to function and have productive lives of their own regardless of where I am. Simply put, they don’t need me to take care of them anymore, and they’re ready to start their own lives. That now enables me to focus more on the next stage of my life… this crazy “career” of mine! Hence, Act 2.

I could be completely off base on this as I haven’t done any focus group testing, but I feel there may be a lot of people who will be able to relate to this… I’m too old to be young, but too young to be old! I’ve been able to hone my craft without the scrutiny young artists have to endure. I’ve also been able to make my mistakes in private. And, I’m certainly not going to have to take any time off to get married or start a family, lol! I still have a lot to offer, and if I can help others realize that about themselves, all the better. I’ve come to believe that if you’re still breathing, God still has work for you to do. Well…

I’m not dead yet!!!