My Birthday

My birthday was last week. I hit the big 5-0. Yep, I'm 50. I've never really struggled with any of my birthdays. Age is just a number to me. There are so many cliches about age...you're only as old as you feel...another birthday is better than dead...all kinds of dumb sayings! I guess if I ever had any negative or depressing thoughts about a birthday, it was this one. Fifty is considered a milestone. It was nothing really special or spectacular to me. Just a reminder that I don't have as much time left on this earth as I did a few years ago...that I have fewer years to live than I have already lived. But you know what that tells me? That tells me that I've got to make the very best of every single day I have left! Yessirree! I'm going to live every single day to the very best of my ability. I am going to resolve to absolutely enjoy every minute of every day - make the most out of every hour! I'm going to dance my way through life and when my time comes to go, I want to be able to say "Wow! What a wonderful life!!"

Several of my good friends and I share the same birthday (how weird is that?!) and some of us got together the night before my birthday for dinner at a local restaurant. Then we went to one of our friends' home for cake, gifts and cards and just a good time. I had a beautiful birthday cake with blue roses on it. Thank you, friends. Good friends are a treasure and should be valued as such.

On the day of my birthday, it has become my routine to have my annual physical exam. (The doctor very professionally informed me that I was "aging" beautifully! Hmph.) I did it this year, as usual, and while at the doctor's office my sister, Beth, called. She called to tell me that they were celebrating my birthday in Baton Rouge. Huh?! I'm in Tennessee and they're celebrating in BR? Hmmm. I appreciate the thought, but it would be nice to be at my own birthday celebration!! Actually, I thought it was very thoughtful, a little weird and totally hilarious that they actually ordered a birthday cake with blue roses (do I see a theme here?!) and had a little birthday party for me - without me! I took a picture of myself with my camera phone and sent it to them so they could at least look at me while they ate my birthday cake. They in turn sent me a picture of the cake. It was beautiful! Hope they enjoyed it...hope it tasted as good as it looked!

So, Happy Birthday to me! I haven't accomplished all I wanted to in this life, but I have accomplished some things and I have been blessed way more than I deserve. I have a wonderful husband that I am totally devoted to, and two of the most wonderful people on this planet to call me Mom. I look at them and see all that they have accomplished and I am proud. Very proud. I have accomplished more through them than I ever could have accomplished alone in this life. So, in retrospect, maybe I have accomplished a lot. Just not the things that I set out to do. Regardless, I am proud. Very proud and very blessed!