Thoughts On My Last Night of the 50's

So, since this is the last night of my '50's (Thank you Phil for making me aware of that fact.) I decided to do a new font.  It's really not that different is it?  Sort of like this birthday, it's just like all the rest, not so different. Although I really am crossing a threshold in the number sense.  I still feel 35. Yes, that's right, 35....only a year older than my first born.  Yet it's true. 

I remember years ago reading a story in "Reader's Digest" about a woman who was older, probably 60ish, and she said she felt 30 but saw this strange, older woman looking back at her in the mirror.  Well, although I don't look 'older', I get it.  Fortunately, for the most part, I like the person in the mirror.  I am blessed.  This is what 60 looks like for me.



People always say that "it's just a number".  I disagree, especially when it is about age.  It's about being on this planet for a certain number of years, and all the experiences life entails. It's about the good, the bad and the ugly.  It's about all the people you have loved and who have loved you.  It's about attachment and detachment.  It's about beauty and it's about ugliness, but it's about love, and mostly love of people and oneself.



I'm thinking now of the people who I wish were here to help me celebrate my years. For totally substantial reasons, they can't make it.  Still, I wish they were with me.  It's those people who have been with me the longest.  








I decided to make my birthday celebration what I most would like it to be.   I have chosen to go out and dance.  I've met so many great new people here in my new home in the Sonoran Desesrt,  and those that I value the most will be there.  How very cool is that?  They have carved out time in their lives to be with me.  I can't tell you how honored and happy I am for each woman who is coming out to just say hello....or to have a dance. I'm lucky...blessed, etc.






I used to have a school in Kansas City where I taught the best of the best.  One of the students sang this to me at the end of the year Awards Ceremonies.  It still brings tears to my eyes when I think of him singing this to me.
The lyrics to the song "Good Riddance" by Green Day, come to my mind and are so appropriate at how I feel now. 

"Another turning point, a fork stuck in the road
Time grabs you by the wrist, directs you where to go
So make the best of this test, and don't ask why
It's not a question, but a lesson learned in time

It's something unpredictable, but in the end it's right.
I hope you had the time of your life.

So take the photographs, and still frames in your mind
Hang it on a shelf in good health and good time
Tattoos of memories and dead skin on trial
For what it's worth it was worth all the while

It's something unpredictable, but in the end it's right.
I hope you had the time of your life.

It's something unpredictable, but in the end it's right.
I hope you had the time of your life. "

Little did each student know that they gave me so much more than I ever gave them. And that's just the tip of the iceburg. 




I've had so many great memories in my life, friends, some stayed, some, we've parted ways.  But all in all, the best for me have stayed and still hear me out, love me, and share their lives with me,....that would be Michael Ann, 










Debbie,




Sherry, 







and Carol. 








I must say Mickey Ann is the one I call at three in the morning when I'm doubling over in any kind of pain. Thanks for that Mickey....

I do wish you could come out and dance with me on Friday. Yet each woman has helped mold me to the person that  I am today.

  One thing I know for sure, life is all about relationships.  It's all about love...loving and being loved. 
In the movie "Ghost" there was this line at the end of the movie where he was going back to heaven and he said something like this, "all the love you have here, you take it with you."  I totally believe that.