🎼Happy Birthday To ME!

🎶🎶Happy Birthday To Me

Happy Birthday To Me

Happy Birthday, I’m 60. . . . 

Happy Birthday To Me🎶🎶

I want to write something really heartfelt and prophetic here, but all I can think of is when in the world did this happen?  How can I be 60? I mean, I’m appreciative that I’m still around so I can BE 60. . . .  but I’m not even done growing up yet! 

You know, I think what we used to think of as “old” isn’t really so old anymore. Think about our rockers – who are still rockin’! Steven Tyler is 70. Mick Jagger is 74 and Paul McCartney is 75! My son recently went to a fabulous Charlie Daniels concert and he’s still performing at  81!!!

So, 60 is sounding pretty young! Besides, I don’t feel old. Well, sometimes my body feels old and my bones squeak but I am still about 35 in my mind. Maybe I’m a little smarter than I was when I was 35. Maybe not. Depends who you ask. When my dad was 60, I  was only 25. I didn’t really think of him being old (because he wasn’t!) because he was very actively engaged in farming. He was busy 24/7 and always on the go. He still carried my luggage in when I came to visit and he still had all the same habits that I remembered. I couldn’t really see that much had changed.

Then one year when I came to visit, he was no longer able to carry my luggage and I noticed he parked his pickup very close to the front door – more in the yard than the driveway. He had centralized his farming operations to the kitchen table so everything was close at hand. Soon he stopped going into town to have coffee with his friends. He was an independent, 80-year-old, stubborn farmer and it took a fall before he conceded that he could no longer live alone on the farm. I think he accepted it better than we did. It broke our hearts to see dad lose his good health and his independence. In the years since, I have lost not only both parents but also my three brothers. This stage of life is not for sissies.

I’m a LONG ways from needing a care center. (note to boys – no need to worry about us moving in with you!) But you blink and things change. It happens quickly. I swear it was just yesterday that my sons were little. That’s why we can’t wait. It’s sneaky, this aging thing. Every day counts. It always has, but it never seemed all that real. It’s kinda real now. Now we know that we have to do what we want or it just won’t happen. Now we know we can’t wait. Doing what I want some days might mean doing nothing – relaxing in the pool or binge-watching Netflix. But if it’s what I want – well, that’s my choice. My life. My choices. And maybe that’s what it comes down to.

Choices. They matter. Maybe it IS because I’m smarter now. (Still maybe not!) Either way, I AM 60 years old today. I’m still shaking my head over that one. I know age really doesn’t matter. I’m having fun. I’m thankful.

So, go plan something fun for today. And have a piece of cake to celebrate my birthday. I plan to do both. Then I’m going to enjoy being 60.  💗