At thirty-nine, forty is close enough that I catch myself thinking about it already. I don’t have much of a list for what I need to accomplish before then. What I do have is a clearer idea of what I want the people at home to be able to count on from me.

I want them to be able to tell me when something’s bothering them. I want to follow through on the small things I’ve agreed to do. And if I say I’ll come back in five minutes, I want to remember that someone might actually be waiting for me to come back. That’s the sort of detail I can miss when my head is already on the next thing.

I’m looking forward to forty. Before I get there, I have another year to practice being a little more dependable in the ways that matter at home. I can start the next time I say, “Give me a minute.”