Today is My Birthday!

Your Birthdate: December 8

Watch out Donald Trump! You've got a head for business and money. You'll make it rich some day, even if you haven't figured out how yet. (Hmmm, maybe that investment club I started 10 years ago will finally put me in clover....but I'll go buy lotto tickets as a hedge.) A supreme individualist, you shouldn't get stuck in a corporate job. Instead, make your own way - so that you can be the boss. (Yeah, I've always been pretty bossy....) Your strength: Your undying determination (Honest to God, a bulldog has nothing on me!) Your weakness: You require an opulent lifestyle (Wonderful! I don't have to defend my tastes any more.) Your power color: Plum (Not so sure; don't old plums become prunes?) Your power symbol: Dollar sign (Yep!) Your power month: August (Usually the month my employer gives me my retirement bonus.)

Today I commemorate surviving 58 years. I have been blessed in many ways, even ways that only served to make me more resilient. The greatest blessing of all is having the good sense to appreciate the good and to endure the bad, realizing they both will pass.

I've had love and passion, and I made up for a solemn childhood demeanor by developing a hearty sense of humor in adulthood. I find new friends every day, and I still love the ones from 4th grade. I've seen more of the world than I ever dreamed I could, and I've helped my loved ones to see it too. I've experienced the joy of mothering and grandmothering, as well as lesser forms of creativity. What I was shorted in childhood I made up for in motherhood. I've revelled in good health, but I've sqaundered it too.

As I approach 60, I can't ignore the speed of the hourglass. Pursuing The Artist's Way has prompted changes in my physical surroundings, changes intended to heighten my awareness and enjoyment of life's beauty. I'm making internal changes intended to heighten my capacity for understanding. These efforts will never be complete; they will alter, accomodate, expand, evolve until--I hope--my last day in this life.

And so it is that I give thought to other changes I want and must make. I told DH a few weeks ago that I plan to enter my 60's with the best possible outlook I can acquire during the next two years. In turning my house upside down to create my first studio, I carved out space for a treadmill that I started using one week ago. (I've used one in the past--much larger house then--and I know I will stick with this one.) If some of this matronly weight comes off, great. If not, my body is bound to benefit from better conditioning and I bet I will have more energy too.

At the end of January I have an appointment with the best plastic surgeon in our city, whose specialty is eye surgery only. I plan to see my eyelids again after a decade of their being hidden. Maybe a brow lift will be called for too. I consulted this talented woman nearly two years ago, and having this surgery has been on my wish list ever since. I'm finally ready, expense be damned!

I am claiming this time in my life as my own. DH can support and encourage me, and thereby reap the benefit of having a happy and loving wife, or he can continue to thwart me at every turn, which will win him nothing but the misery he enjoys. Either way I will no longer be deterred. I have given to others all my life and, while I've received many blessings in return, I will spend the last two decades taking every sweet joy of life that I can find! Happy birthday to me.