Milestone Birthday – CoronaLife Day 271

The year 2020 has been a weird, difficult year, so I guess my having a milestone birthday during it is rather appropriate. As this interminable year drags to a close, I have closed out the first half-century of my life.

It’s kind of a weird feeling, reaching fifty, because I really don’t feel fifty. I mean, I am fifty so I guess this is what fifty feels like, but it’s not really what I pictured. Fifty was OLD. Now it’s not old. It just middlin’.

There came a time, at least for me, where age became just a number. I never was much of a birthday celebrator once childhood passed, and frankly, I would be just as happy to let it pass unheralded. But my daughter is, for some reason, excessively excited about celebrating my birthday, so we are having some cupcakes and presents and a special meal (that I am not making). She even allowed me the honor of opening the Advent calendar today, and putting together the Lego piece inside it (our calendar is Lego Harry Potter).

Every birthday is a time for reflection, and fifty is even more so. With the year we have behind us, I am grateful to still be here, and that all my loved ones are healthy and safe. I am not where I thought I would be when I turned fifty, and there is some regret in that, but I have a good life. While some career goals have not been reached, there is still time, and the more important life goals like a husband and child I love and am proud of have been achieved.

It’s a long time, fifty times around the sun, and I have seen many things in those 5 decades. This year has broken my heart in a thousand ways, but I have also seen the tremendous goodness and kindness people are capable of, and the things people can achieve when they work together in good faith. I have lived long enough to know that hard times pass, if we hang on long enough. The inevitability of change is, rather ironically, the only thing in life that never changes.

Be safe, be smart, so you all will be here for my next trip around the sun.

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