Still Celebrating

"The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate." -  Oprah Winfrey

Sixty years and eighteen days old and still celebrating.  My birthday bliss has gone on and on.  On the morning of my birthday, I woke with a heart filled with joy.  Sixty.  I made it.  I am truly blessed.

I spent the day in the most perfect way.  Time with Jacob, time with my mother and dinner with those I love most in the world.  I drank a lot of good champagne, was spoiled with beautiful gifts and delighted with the many birthday wishes that came my way from near and far.  I could not have asked for a better day.  And that was just the first of my big celebrations.

Last week, Cathy hosted a twilight tea for the special women in my life.  It was a wonderful evening.  Women came together from different parts of my life.  While they all had heard of one another, some of them had never met or only met once, at my fiftieth birthday.  The food was delicious, the bubbly was flowing and the weather was perfect.  I can think of few celebrations that have given me so much joy.  As I have aged, I've come to appreciate how much this circle of women has enriched my life.  My cousins came from Michigan, my high school friend, Miriam came from Windsor.  There were colleagues from all my old jobs and the moms of some of my kids.  Sara wore the nametag with the caption, Sara: Daughter of my heart. As has been often the case, having a summer birthday precluded some of my dearest friends from attending as they were away on vacation but I will catch up with them another time and will create an occasion when we can all get together again.

So far, I'm loving sixty.  I am convinced it only gets better from here.

Sixty

"There was a star danced, and under that was I born." -William Shakespeare

In a couple of hours I will officially turn sixty though in fact, I wasn't born until ll o'clock in the morning.  Unlike some of my friends, I'm not struggling with this milestone birthday.  I am truly, overwhelmingly grateful for it.  It is the birthday I feared I would not get when I got my cancer diagnosis shortly after my fiftieth.  But here I am, healthy, thriving and feeling blessed.

There are some great things about aging.  There is a certain wisdom that can only be gained by living enough years to acquire it.  It is not an intellectual process, but an experiential one.  There is a level of confidence that comes from developing a real comfort in one's own skin, even if the bones underneath it are aching a little.  There is freedom from the pressure of meeting a lot of extraneous expectations.  It doesn't matter anymore.  Been there, done that.  I've already proven I can be the successful executive and the mom who makes the best goodies for the bake sale and the perfect hostess and the snappiest dresser all at the same time.  But I'm sixty now and I don't have to prove anything to anyone anymore.

This is my time.  My life.  My journey.  If I want to be the successful executive and the best hostess and the snappiest dresser, I will.  And if I choose not to, I won't.  I'm giving myself a get out of jail free card to be used whenever I feel I need it, as often as I wish to use it.

Here's to liberation from expectations.  Happy Birthday to me.