Photo Courtesy: Satguru on Flickr

I am sure you completed the sentence and read it as:

Every cloud has a silver lining.

That’s how I would do it.

But I had an “Aha Moment” earlier this month. January 2nd was my 40th birthday. I had mixed feelings about it – mainly because Kavitha and Sumukh were away in India. It didn’t seem like the day was complete without them. The day was salvaged a bit because of a few close friends and I am thankful for them.

So, here is the story of the “aha-moment.”

On my Facebook page, my friend Karthik Sundaram sent his wishes and said.

Rajesh: Welcome to the big four o. Have a wonderful day and year ahead.

With the mood I was in, this was my response:

Thanks Karthik. I tried to tell GOD to push that out a bit but he wouldn’t listen 🙁 So, I can see the cloud of 40, I just have to find the silver lining 🙂

So far so good but the Aha-Moment came when my friend Kathy McManis Holzapfel (aka Cate Noble) added to the conversation and said:

God said to tell you she always listens 🙂 And she’s got wondrous things planned for you…things she needed you to be older and wiser for. Oh, she also hinted that your lining might be gold. Ha! And there you were looking for silver.

Happy birthday, my friend. Remember: 50 is the new 30, so at 40 you’re practically a teenager.

God bless Kathy. Those were kind words and most importantly, I needed to hear them right there and then.

Suddenly, “every cloud has a silver lining” seemed like trapped in a box. Once in the box, there was no way for me to be thinking outside of it.

In other words, every cloud may have a golden lining is totally “out of the box” and I could not see it.

Thanks Kathy for that wake up call!