Happy Birthday!

I want a cake like this!  But I'll settle for a Guinness!

Did you know that Good Friday used to be called "Regular" Friday?  This is true, at least until that blessed spring day in 1966 when a curly haired child came into the world all Aries and fire and henceforth it was named "Good" Friday though it probably should be renamed "Wicked Ass Important" Friday but no one could have determined how wonderful April 8, 1966 was!

Yes..it is almost my birthday!   This  year it's on Easter Sunday though, not Good Friday!  And yes you are doing the math right, I am about to turn 46!  Isn't that cool?  How totally and awesome it is to be me at 46!  I've got some lines in my face from too much smiling and hope to smile so much more in the years to come that trains will become confused as I walk by thinking my face is an alternate route!

Why do people worry about getting older? Wrinkles? So what?  Grey hair, not here, I have none,  but again..so what?   My forties have been the best decade of my life.  I have had more fun, experienced more love and life and laughter than at any time before and I can sense that it's just going to get better from here on in!

Gosh, I even love looking at the changes in my face.  I have this little thing happening with my jawline that makes me smile as I see my Grandmother in that!  I see the crinkles around my eyes and there is my father looking back at me!  I am aging as we all are and I could fight it or I can marvel in it.  I am not much of a fighter!

And inside I think I'm even younger than ever!  I ease through now, enjoying it and having fun.  My youngest kids told me I was the most funnest person on the planet the other day.  How cool is that?  They have a ton of friends yet I guess their friends aren't quite as goofy as their mom with all the dancing and hula hooping around.

It does help that they are older.  Having babies is delicious but now is the time that I finally get to be me.  To explore who I am as a person.   I'm coming into my own and as much as I adored my time as mommy to tiny ones, the freedom I have now with older children is a true gift.  I am free now to travel, to work and to play and do all the things I want to much more easily.  No more babies for me.  I thought that would be bittersweet but it isn't.  It turns out that age has given me freedom and freedom is such a gift!

Wisdom comes with age they say.  And I do think I've acquired a bit such as being wise enough to know I know diddly squat and that I should keep on learning and looking to learn.  It is best to explore the earth with the eyes of a fool than to miss things because you think you already know it all.  So foolishly I proceed!

I've often heard the term "aging gracefully".  Well I refuse.  I'm aging, not gracefully,  but wickedly!  With zest and passion and joy.  I've become very comfortable with getting uncomfortable and experiencing growth.  Don't expect me to slow down.  Don't expect me to give into the idea that things aren't appropriate at a certain age or that I should behave a certain way.  It is typical of me to not be typical.

I just don't do appropriate well and I don't do typical well and at age 46 I finally know that this is just how it should be and if you don't like it, well, no birthday cake for you!  And I make a mean chocolate cake!!

Life is so good.  Don't sip at it quietly. Drink it in with great slurpy gulps!

Cheers!