Today at 9:35a California time I start working on my 53rd year. This is sort of like Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year for me. Another beginning, when I take stock, count my blessings and make silly resolutions that won’t be kept.
I’m thankful for more than can be written down. First and foremost, of course, is God’s infinite Grace and I’m truly grateful that I could recognize it during even the darkest times in my life.
I’m also thankful for Green. It’s my favorite color mainly because of scenes like the one above. So fresh and alive I can smell the ionization in the air.
Where was I? Oh, that’s right. How quickly the faculties fade! Heh…
Now that crone status has officially been reached, I have some wisdom to impart. Very little, just a few things you already know, really, but I feel like writing it down.
First, don’t be so damned hard on yourself! I know thin people who are riding themselves over ‘those last five pounds’. Please! Go to a grocery store near a retirement village one day when the buses are pulled up in front. We come into this world a crying, wrinkled mess and we most likely will go out that way. What you look like is of no real consequence; it’s what you feel, how you act and the way you treat others that matters.
Forgive. Bearing ill will toward someone for some wrong, whether real or imagined, only hurts yourself.
That old saying ‘Life is what happens while you’re making plans’? Completely true. Not just the big events, life is the minutes of the day. Like the months or years, they’re gone so quickly and we wake an old person one day with no idea how it happened. It’s impossible for humans to appreciate all the minutes, it’s simply not in our nature; but at least we can pluck a few out of every day and revel in them.
Lie in the grass and gaze at the sky. Give thanks. Play. Become completely irrational and cover the dogs with silly string. Doesn’t matter; this is life. Sick, happy, depressed, drunk… it’s ours, each second. We waste so much. Myself included.
In the end, life seems to be captured by photographs. That’s why most people would run into a burning building to save their photo albums; the memories of moments contained within can tell a life story. Oh, but the moments not captured between cardboard pages, those precious memories never tethered to notions of who we were or what we felt… those are the ones we ourselves treasure and replay, again and again. Make them often, store them up for future use. You will need them.
That’s it. Happy birthday to me! BFF Bonna sent me a Webkinz dachshund [that I've already registered], two luscious candles and a card that made me cry.
Bonna is the only person to never forget my birthday. Ever. That’s not an easy thing to accomplish and I should know, since I forgot YsD’s this year! Yes, I do feel bad about it and don’t know how it slipped past… I must have been combing silly string out of the dog’s fur and forgot…
And finally: proof that I wasn’t always afraid of clowns and actually liked that doll, at least in February of 1960! Will wonders never cease?!
August 4th, 2009 at 9:30 am
happy happy birthday!
August 4th, 2009 at 9:31 am
Thanks, R!
August 4th, 2009 at 9:31 am
A much better birthday assessment than my dad usually gives me each year. “Well…. so it’s your birthday today, huh? One step closer to death. All crap and crushed kittens from here on in, hon. Don’t get comfy.”
Yeah, he’s fun at parties.
August 4th, 2009 at 9:32 am
Oh, no!
Thanks, LeeAnn!
August 4th, 2009 at 9:52 am
HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAM!!!
August 4th, 2009 at 9:58 am
Oh, now it’s a party! Thanks, Bitterroot!
August 4th, 2009 at 10:04 am
Happy birthday my love – so close yet so far away – loving you always, always my love
August 4th, 2009 at 10:06 am
Awww… I just got one of those thrills up my leg. Does that make me a Democrat?
Thank you, sweetie!
August 4th, 2009 at 10:19 am
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!! May a handsome man tickle your um . . . birthday fancy today! Arthur!!! snap! snap!
August 4th, 2009 at 10:23 am
Thanks, Oddy! He’ll be on the job… soon…
August 4th, 2009 at 11:58 am
Happy Another Trip Around The Sun Day!!!!
August 4th, 2009 at 12:16 pm
Thanks, Walrilla!
August 4th, 2009 at 12:04 pm
Happy Birthday, officially! You’re ANOTHER year wiser than me? I’ll never catch up…
August 4th, 2009 at 12:17 pm
Thank you, Leanne! And no, you never will… be grateful…!
August 4th, 2009 at 1:45 pm
Happy Birthday!!! May it be filled with lots of green goodness (and not the save the world kind… but the good plant kind).
August 4th, 2009 at 2:08 pm
Thanks, Teresa!
August 4th, 2009 at 2:00 pm
Happy Birthday…and may I say you don’t look a day over 52. Actually, I’ve seen pictures of you, and you look way younger than me…and I’m 43. You’re doing the ‘green’ thing right, obviously!
August 4th, 2009 at 2:08 pm
Thank you, Mrs. Who!
August 4th, 2009 at 3:08 pm
If I had known I would have baked my birthday corn muffins full of cheese and bacon! Bree and Maisy Daisy would have joined in the party.
Happy bi
rthday, hope you get your shotgun!
August 4th, 2009 at 3:50 pm
Thanks, Peter! I won’t get it today, that’s for sure… but maybe it’s not too far off.
Oh, and florida isn’t all that bad…LOL!
August 4th, 2009 at 3:10 pm
Hey! Why don’t you have a Florid Duh flag widget? Is Florid Duh that bad?
August 4th, 2009 at 3:12 pm
But I still want to say…the clown picture…scares me. I thought your coulrophbia went deep. Maybe he rejected your love?
August 4th, 2009 at 3:51 pm
Maybe he did… I wish I could remember…
August 4th, 2009 at 4:10 pm
Happy Birthday again!
And I have to ask what the hell your doing to that clown?
August 4th, 2009 at 4:56 pm
QW!
I’m sleeping!!!!
August 4th, 2009 at 4:45 pm
What happened with clown that you fear them now? That would prove that 80% of kids actually are afraid of clowns… I prefer pets for my kids.
August 4th, 2009 at 4:54 pm
Happy Birthday to you from Sesame Street.
August 4th, 2009 at 4:57 pm
Thanks, Patti!!
August 4th, 2009 at 6:34 pm
Happy Birthday, Pam!!!
August 4th, 2009 at 6:39 pm
Thanks so much, Hapkido!
August 4th, 2009 at 7:49 pm
Happy Birthday!!!
And your words of wisdom ring so very true – I have been doing it wrong for a while now… 
Thanks.
August 4th, 2009 at 9:58 pm
Thanks, Richmond! It’s all just sound and fury, signifying nothing. I’ll have forgotten about it all tomorrow…
August 4th, 2009 at 8:03 pm
Happy Birthday Lady!!!!!
August 4th, 2009 at 9:59 pm
Thanks, Wes!!
:texas:
August 4th, 2009 at 10:30 pm
A big Jihadi Hug from JihadGene going out to you LOOONG TIME Pam!
Happy Birthday LOOONG time!
Ruv you looong time, JG
August 5th, 2009 at 8:47 am
Ruv you looong time, Gene! Thanks so much!!
August 5th, 2009 at 2:33 am
Happy Birthday my dear friend!
Love you!
August 5th, 2009 at 8:47 am
Thanks, Joanie!
August 5th, 2009 at 7:13 am
Oops, forgot to come over and say Happy Birthday yesterday! BTW, I now have a webkinz online as well. A fish and a bird. Per my children. They wanted me to play with them. ;-)
August 5th, 2009 at 8:48 am
Thanks, VW! If you want to friend me online my Webkinz ID is… what else? pamibe
August 5th, 2009 at 9:25 am
I hope you had a great day yesterday!
I don’t like clowns either. That “IT” movie pretty much cinched that for me. Creepy.
August 5th, 2009 at 9:35 am
Thanks, Kim! I had a great day…!