Wednesday, May 3, 2017

Just another school day


This is how I looked on May 3, 2017, a milestone birthday, perplexed that I have arrived here in such a short span of time, grateful too, for all the blessings that have arrived here with me. The chief blessing is my family, my husband and children, and my wide ranging extended family, the great gift my parents gave me.

I am thinking about my parents a lot today, realizing how young I was when my father died, I was still in my thirties, and how unprepared I was when my mother died, even though she had lived to ninety-three. I was awake in the wee hours of this morning, sitting in the dark living room alone, thinking how strange it was to turn this age in the absence of the ones who gave me life. I remember them turning this age. I was grown and aware. It seemed so far in my own future.

I look at my children now, so vibrantly twenty something, their whole lives stretching out before them, and I know they have no idea how fast this ride goes. This is as it should be. They and their honeys will be coming over for cake and pizza tonight. My husband would have cooked us any meal I desired, but I wanted to keep it as simple as a four-year-old's birthday party. We will also do our now-traditional tequila shots, this time with the really expensive tequila my daughter brought home from last week's fancy gala event that she helped plan for her job. And then all the kids will hug and kiss us and go to their own homes, because it's a school night, and they have work tomorrow.

Outside, it is a glorious spring day, the air soft and blue, the trees newly leafed. Dapples of sunlight play on my face as I write this, my laptop set on a picnic table in the courtyard, cobblestones under my flip flops. I came outside to feel the sky above my head in the cool of the morning, to step purposefully into this day.


20 comments:

  1. Many, many happy returns of the day! Have a very happy birthday. I will be entering my sixth decade at the end of the summer. My father died without being so blessed and my mother only lived to be 61. I'm afraid that I will have to live this decade without role models. But you enjoy and have a wonderful year.

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  2. I will celebrate you all day. I didn't know your father died so young. Mine did too. I was in my early thirties. My heart still aches for him. So thankful you're in my life.

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  3. Happy birthday - enjoy your day and all that it brings!

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  4. Happy Birthday lovely lady and the best to you and your family always! This post is a loving tribute to both parents and yourself and your loved ones now. I hope you enjoy the day and your celebration this evening.

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  5. This post. It's so full of awe and beauty. I love it.

    A very, very happy Birthday to you. Thank you for being you.

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  6. Happiest of birthdays to you! I lost my father when I was 23 and still miss him tremendously. I am a couple of years ahead of you in age, although aging is not for sissies, it brings it's own sweet rewards.
    I'm so glad the day is glorious, and better still, that you appreciate all that such a day brings. Enjoy your celebration!
    Xoxo
    Barbara

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  7. We share a birthday, to the day and year. I seem to recall, now, that I made this discovery last year, but forgot in the meantime. Happy 60th, Angella! You have written what I wish I could have put on paper. Thank you for that :)

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  8. Happy Birthday beautiful one💕

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  9. Happy birthday, beautiful wise woman. Thank you for your gift of writing that touches my heart and mind. Cherish the day and I hope you can delight in being who you are.
    I'll be joining you being 60 in a few months time.

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  10. Happiest of happy birthdays you gorgeous woman, you amazing soul, you incredibly talented writer, you generous heart! I toast to you!

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  11. Happy birthday. I hope you have a lovely evening with your family.

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  12. Oh, you ravishing beauty! Happy, Happy Birthday!
    Revel in it. Breath in every precious moment of it. Here's to your day and the rest of a wonderful long and happy life.

    I am so glad to know you, birthday girl. Le chiam...clink :)

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  13. Love your description of where you sat and wrote this.

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  14. Just stopping by again to send you to bed with more birthday wishes. I hope your day was lovely.

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  15. You are glorious! I know that you're fast asleep as I type this, but I do hope that you had a wonderful evening. Sixty and onward. I don't know if you watched the video of the woman archer, but it's the perfect thing to watch, I think, the morning after your 60th birthday.http://theageofhappiness.com/posts/bodhi-hanna-kistner-88-only-after-sixty-mytrue-life-began/3WELkJ2M2Q

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  16. Happy birthday sweet lady! You are fabulous and gorgeous. I love how present you are in this post --writing so clearly and beautifully of the moment.

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  17. Happy belated birthday! A fast ride, indeed. I've been thinking a lot about the passage of time, I don't know why, and you summarized so many of my own feelings here. The other day I checked out a book to a kid who graduates in 2020, and I thought, my god, 2020 is only THREE YEARS FROM NOW!!!! Doesn't it seem like we just rang in the new millennium a few years ago?

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  18. Thank you, dear wonderful friends, for these lovely birthday wishes. I am delighted and humbled by them, and this place we share. Big hugs.

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