This past weekend was Daughter's 7th Birthday!! As soon as we hit JULY...there was a daily countdown! There was no "GOOD MORNING MOMMY"...there was "19 MORE DAYS TILL MY BIRTHDAY!" So.... she is now 7...and acts like a teen at times...I'm scared for when she actually hits the teenage years...LOL!!The day was spent having fun, making a cake and a little shopping in between. Then a surprise visit from some family! Since her Birthday on Saturday, she has been wearing the same Princess Disney dress.....and surprisingly it is not dirty...not one speck of dirt on the satiny white and purple dress!!!!
Her day of treats and celebrations made me think of my own Birthday...slowly creeping upon me!! A week later its my turn to have a slice of the cake!! While I'm happy for my kids to celebrate my day, I'm a little less in the celebration mood!! This is my last year in the 30's! I'm at the marker of hitting 40!! 40!! Hubby says its just a number, accept it! I'm not doing well with aging!! It scares me...I cannot accept it! I still feel like I'm 16...getting my licence...driving for the first time, a Chevy, a red Blazer...with red interior...I can remember it all....pulling out of the driveway and Tom Cochrane's song was in the background..."Life is a Highway"...how fitting...the world at my feet, my life ahead of me...so many possibilities!! And here we are now....the last year in my 30's!!
I feel like I need to commemorate the 30's...reflect upon the decade and write a list, not a BUCKET LIST...that term makes me think the end is near, and its not.....
The 30's were good to me....birth of my Children, marriage, buying a house and realizing what I wanted to do with my life....I WANTED TO CREATE! I became my own individual and got to know myself! Felt more comfortable within my own skin.
What else do I want to do before I turn the BIG 40? Finish the 30's off with a BANG!?
How about you....how did you feel, leaving a certain decade?
Ruth here. I just had a decade birthday, since you asked. It was the hardest for me to accept yet. I just turned 60. I have difficulty even formulating that thought in my mind, let alone putting it in writing. Since I have 20 years on you, I can tell you a few things about getting older. Inside, you still feel like 16. That never goes away, at least it hasn't for me. Embrace it. It is what keeps you from being the tired, haggard person that a lot of your peers will become.
ReplyDeleteHere are the things that change:
-You know that "comfortable in your own skin" thing you mentioned? It gets better. You keep getting more comfortable with it, and hopefully by the time you are old and ready for the bone yard, you will feel totally at peace with all your wrinkles and foibles.
-You get wiser. I think it is a result of experience, but one day you wake up and you have wisdom. It's part of you. It grew in you while you were living life.
-Your passion for creativity grows. It becomes a hunger and a need, and that is a good thing, because one day you will find the kids' bedrooms empty, no fighting, no arguing, no loud music, (oh forget that one - Matt lives there, LOL), no "mommy this or mommy that". And a big ache lives inside your chest, for awhile, until you get used to it. And that is when you will be ever so grateful that you have a creative passion. You're going to need it, and gradually you will learn to fill your life up with something other than a full house of children. I remember this, but Matt probably won't because he was such a little guy at the time, but one Christmas we had 26 people there for dinner. My family, Joe's family, and all those associated with it. Tables pushed together and covered with brightly colored tablecloths, the shrieks and laughter of happy children. Dirty dishes without end! It was a perfect Christmas. There were many years like that...and now, just Richard and myself and a phone call from the girls. You have to fill that void with something else, so honour your creativity, give it wings. You have so much inside of you, Sherry, and despite being in your last 30s birthday, the fullness of your creative prowess has yet to be born. That comes in the later years, so you have that to look forward to.
-You and your spouse finally have some time to be with each other, kind of like it was in the beginning before the kids, only better. Better because your love has grown and morphed into something richer than you could ever have imagined in those early years.
-The wrinkles, the sagging, no matter what you do, it's coming, but make your life so rich and fulfilling that it won't be so important anymore. You have bigger and better battles to fight. Aging isn't one of them. If it's any consolation, 40, 50, and 60 don't look anything like they used to. And your body? It has served you so well over the years. It bore you precious children, it stood up to whatever abuse you dished it, and it climbed mountains you never thought you could scale. So cut it a little slack if gravity has its way with you. In the scheme of things, it's small potatoes.
Happy Almost 39th Birthday, Sherry