A number between 1 and 100...

Number: a concept of quantity.

I have a new number! I have a new decade. My birthday ushers in more of "the best years" of my life. Never mind that each decade has successively been the best. My number now is 60.

I remember my mother at 60. She was "mature". I am also "mature", but not as old as I seem to remember her being at the time. She dyed her hair to hide the gray, to look "younger". I feel no need to. She enjoyed her life, and I plan to continue to. My kids probably think I am "old"--and I don't care! What you see is what you get.

There are many good things about being 60, not the least of which is to enjoy being 60! Many of my ancestors did not have this many years--victims of cancer, infections, violence. My passion for genealogy has intensified of late---I appreciate "history" as I acquire more of my own, and feel the need to document it, sorry that I did not acquire more of "my" history when those ancestors were here to just tell me about it--easier than the quest I now undertake. An yet, there were many many ancestors who lived well into the late 90's and a few to 100 in a time when it was much less likely to do so....so my goal, perhaps will be genetically enhanced!

I have had 60 good years. I plan to have at least 36-40 more. I have much left to do--some things formally on "the list", others yet to be determined. A little over half done, so to speak. Some will be my decisions, within my control. Others I am dependant upon others for---and hope it works out the way I would like!

Z. is currently obsessed with the "50's"--and I think he is secretly excited that he knows an "expert" on the decade of his interest, although he finds the concepts of "before TV", "party lines", and "before there were expressways" are hard to imagine.--I think he thinks the "50's" were a long time ago---to me seems like just yesterday that I practiced "duck and cover" under my desk at Washington Elementary, confident that the piece of 1/2 inch plywood over my head would protect me from the Russian invasion!--just a few years younger than he is now....

One of the very good things about being 60 is that History is not nearly as daunting as it seemed at 16! I now have command of the complexities of history, and the interaction of events--many of which I have witnessed! I know a lot--knowledge acquired formally and informally in contexts over time. I have a confidence that is lacking before 30--not that I wasn't confident at the time---but it is different now--a peaceful confidence, knowing who you are, what is important, and what you want. Knowing that there are natural cycles, knowing that whatever it is, this too will pass, you will get through it, and life will go on to be enjoyed! Knowing what is important, and what is not.

I remember a few birthdays--some memories enhanced by pictures made before color images were possible. My first roller skates--very grown up! Metal, ball bearings, dangerous, with a real skate key to hang around my neck! A ticket to "freedom" of motion!--Age 4 (what were my parents thinking?) Age 16, the drivers license! Confidence on the outside, fear inside!! 21--much ado about nothing, feeling slightly disappointed that on that day, as I was not any more of an "adult" than I had been the day before! 22, experiencing morning sickness for the first time (although I thought it was bad chicken!) Age: 31--3.9 children, station wagon, 4 bedroom colonial in a new subdivision, member of the PTA, my identity firmly centered in being "mom", although I had other slightly impressive credentials that seemed not to matter. 40--asking how I got here so fast? 50-secure in who I was, ready to wear red hats with purple dresses---and now 60. It is a more welcomed number than 30, 40....each decade unique, important, with challenges overcome, endured, or conquered...but not to be redone, as I life is on fast forward. There is no rewind!

I wish I could do a better job of conveying what it means to have lived this life. I watch "the four"--living their lives! I wish they could sort through it, discover what is really important, embrace who they are, be comfortable in their "self", but I know they do not yet have the years. Getting to the things that really matter--which is most likely not what they think these things are. We each have to learn this for ourselves, in our own time, from our own experience. The lucky ones, like me, have no regrets! I hope they don't.

Life is what happens when you are busy doing other things---an interesting concept, but not very useful to the young! So at the magic number of 60--my wisdom and advice is to "live"--not as in "live it up", "live in the moment", "live on the edge". I mean "live"--enjoy each moment, experience, opportunity, relationship. Accomplish the really important things--and don't let day-to-day living get in the way of creating a life! A life that you love, with people you love. Have no regrets.

"Live long and prosper"--I plan to continue to!

Checkin E-Bay for an Ark!!

Is is raining..and raining, raining, raining, raining. I don't remember ever getting this much rain in such a short time. We needed some rain--but not all at once. And the hurricane effect isn't even here yet!! And tornadoes---who gets tornados in September? At least the lake levels will go up!!