They Say it's Your Birthday!

It's my birthday, and at 6:07am EST this morning I officially turned fifty. Yep, the big 5-0.
So far, so good.

All told, I think I look pretty good for my age. I may be carrying some extra weight, and I leave the hair color on longer to tackle "those stubborn grays." but otherwise I look and feel pretty darn good.

It's actually a relief to make it to fifty. After all I've lived half a century! I've seen cars grow smaller, televisions get bigger and phones leave the wall mount in the house and take up residence in my pocket! I've seen computers take up an entire air conditioned room, and microwaves the size of a dorm fridge.

I remember Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King, the Apollo moon landing and the first shuttle launch. I've lived through the race riots, and the gas shortage, Watergate, and the market crash of the 80's.

Time truly marches on and I am blessed to have survived my childhood, young adulthood and the birth of three children. One hundred years ago, it was no small feat to reach those important milestones. We may not have a cure for the common cold, but I was spared polio, rubella, whooping cough, and smallpox thanks to vaccines.

I also lived through an age before "safety first" was the motto for parents raising children.  I rode a bike  without wearing a helmet, and roller skated minus the knee and elbow pads. I rode in cars with no car seats and often shared a lap belt with one or two siblings. I was allowed to play and ride that bike all over our neighborhood and sled down our huge hill each winter. I taught myself to swim, climbed trees, climbed fences and spent fifteen or twenty five cents each day buying ice cream from the Good Humor Man (with no adult hovering nearby.)

I have so much to be thankful for as I enter the second half of my life. I am married to my best friend, I have three healthy, wonderful almost adult children, and I still have my parents, brothers, sisters close by, and stay in touch with my extended family and friends.

Happy Birthday to me- I have survived (and flourished) for fifty years. Bring on the next fifty!

This is a drawing that my daughter gave me for Christmas!