Who are you?

Today is a special day - it is my sister's birthday!  We love birthdays in our family, at least we did growing up.  Back in the day our Dad would have flowers delivered to us at school on our birthday.  It was so exciting when the school office assistant would come to the classroom door and deliver a vase with a flower or two in it from Gordon Hill Nursery and a note with my name on it. Such was life growing up in a small town in the 1960s.  We also got to choose the menu on our birthday for dinner.  This was a special treat of mine, because the meal didn't have to be perfectly balanced, with all of the right colors on the plate and I ALWAYS eliminated salad from my birthday menu. On very special years, if things were going well in our parent's business, we actually got to go out to a restaurant, now that was a special treat!

I am amazed at how many people, particularly women, that refuse to state their age.  I have never been one to be upset at the age that I am, I'm thankful that I'm still here.  I do have other weird and quirky things about age and years though - like I don't care for odd numbered years.  I find that interesting because I was born in an odd numbered year (1957). I started thinking about this about 20 years ago.  In one of my journals I made some lists of events in my life that happened in odd numbered years, versus even numbered years.  I've never been too concerned about the age I am, it was more about the year. I don't set out each year expecting that it will be more good or bad, since I look at every year I am alive as a gift.  I do more reflecting, and looking back. In the course of my life the odd numbered years have held more difficulty for me than the even.  There are exceptions, yet it is interesting to me to look at patterns.  Once I started noticing those patterns I chose to try and reverse them - to make each year more 'good' than 'bad'. 

Once I get my mind thinking on something I may ponder it for days!  Why do people not want to state their age? Why is being 30, 45, 50 or 65 something to be ashamed or embarrassed about?  It is just a number.  I have known men and women that actually will go to great lengths to not reveal their age, I'm sure you have too.  I always want to ask them why, what is the big deal?  This isn't something that is new to me, I remember when I was in my 20s and my friends started turning 30 - you would have thought it was the end of the world!  

2015 was an interesting one for me, in regards to age, for another reason.  My Dad was 58 when he died in 1980.   2015 was the year I turned 58.  I spent the entire year thinking about how young he was, all of the things he missed.  He basically was not here, other than in my heart, for my adulthood.  I also thought a lot about my Mom last year.  We marked the 5 year anniversary of her passing.  She lived to be 87.  My mother was vibrant, hard working and very much a lady.  She worked well into her 70s - she was talented and smart and though we clashed in our personalities, sometimes with loud bangs, I admired her.  Her last few years of life she was a shell of herself. Suffering from Parkinson's and related dementia she was silent and relied on others for her care.  It happened so quickly, it seemed one day she was busy with her social groups, enjoying our family events and the next she was immobile.  

All of us, God willing, will have a birthday anniversary this year.  Chances are though, that someone reading this will not.  Illness, accidents and unexpected natural catastrophes take lives.   As I started my new journal for 2016 (yay, an even numbered year!) my focus is to NOT focus on that fact, the even number, but to do my best to be appreciative of each day. I wrote a few days ago that my word of the year is enough.  I want 2016 to be enough in every way: enough time with friends and family. Enough time to relax and appreciate how very blessed I am and not focus on what is lacking.  I want to celebrate birthdays with friends and sit around campfires in new places.  I want to create warm knitted items, then travel somewhere cold to wear them!  I want to cook good food then sit down with family and friends to enjoy it together.  I want enough.

Celebrate your birthday anniversary!  Rejoice in each year, the good and the not so good. They have made you the person you are today.  Then look around you and tell the people in your life why they are important to you too.  We all make a wonderful patchwork quilt of life. One of my goals for 2016 is to do just that, tell the people that are important to me that they ARE, important and I love them, because they are part of my stitched together life quilt and without them I wouldn't be the same.