{"id":1180,"date":"2011-05-05T18:17:38","date_gmt":"2011-05-06T01:17:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ajllewellyn.com\/site\/?p=1180"},"modified":"2011-05-05T18:17:38","modified_gmt":"2011-05-06T01:17:38","slug":"the-big-4-oh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ajllewellyn.com\/site\/2011\/05\/05\/1180\/","title":{"rendered":"The Big 4-Oh"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ajllewellyn.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/4oh.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1181\" title=\"4oh\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ajllewellyn.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/4oh.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"465\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ajllewellyn.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/4oh.jpg 465w, https:\/\/www.ajllewellyn.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/4oh-300x258.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 465px) 100vw, 465px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<div>By A.J. Llewellyn<\/div>\n<div>\u00a0<\/div>\n<div>So I hit the big 4-0 today and I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, to be really, really, <em>really<\/em> honest, I didn&#8217;t think I would still be there. My brothers and I have struggled with the fact that one by one we have all passed D-day, which is the age of 37, the age our mother was when she died.<\/div>\n<div>We are, thank God,\u00a0healthy and cancer-free and to some extent we all feel guilty that there was no cure for colon cancer when she became gravely ill. I recently had a conversation with both my brothers who, like me, secretly thought we wouldn&#8217;t make it to the big 4-0&#8230;now I&#8217;m here, I feel like we have each been handed a gift. I know all three of us live each day like it&#8217;s the last one on earth. We truly do.<\/div>\n<div>People ask about my prolific work ethic and I think that it&#8217;s partly to do with the short-life-phobia but more than anything it is just an endless thank you to the universe for allowing my passion for writing to be realized.<\/div>\n<div>I have been so blessed to be a published author and to have been able to connect with so many readers and writers online who, like me, also have a passion for books.<\/div>\n<div>I can&#8217;t help feeling that even though\u00a0I am starting to feel aches and pains, can no longer indulge my obsession with ice cream and cornflakes for breakfast and I am starting to\u00a0forget where I\u00a0left the car keys&#8230;I am here. I am alive and I am writing and listening to music, I have the most awesome romantic partner ever, the best dog on four legs, two handsome, amazing cats&#8230;and I have the big 4-0.<\/div>\n<div>I want to thank all my readers and fellow authors\u00a0who have reached out to me over the last four\u00a0years. I hope you still do even though I am officially middle-aged.<\/div>\n<div>ARRRGH!<\/div>\n<div>Anyone else noticing changes with the passing of years? What thing\u00a0do you hate most? Please leave a comment and I&#8217;ll be giving away a free paperback of my new book <em>The Love God\u00a0of Indian Frybread.<\/em><\/div>\n<div>Aloha oe,<\/div>\n<div>\u00a0<\/div>\n<div>A.J.\u00a0<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By A.J. Llewellyn \u00a0 So I hit the big 4-0 today and I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, to be really, really, really honest, I didn&#8217;t think I would still be there. My brothers and I have struggled with the fact that one by one we have all passed D-day, which is the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ajllewellyn.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ajllewellyn.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ajllewellyn.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ajllewellyn.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ajllewellyn.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1180"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ajllewellyn.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1180\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1182,"href":"https:\/\/www.ajllewellyn.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1180\/revisions\/1182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ajllewellyn.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ajllewellyn.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ajllewellyn.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}