Tuesday, December 22, 2009

The Decades

I first posted this back in December but as the 50th anniversary of my birth looms closer and closer I wanted to repost. I have 6 weeks to go till that big day and I do have a lot of celebrating and fun planned for the last of my 40's. Taking my mom on a road trip to see two great grand babies, a business trip to San Diego (love that city), another long lost girlfriends trip for some canoeing adventure, a camping trip with some great friends and one of my fav friends has offered up her backyard and pool for a birthday party!!!  I'm very blessed. I keep reminding myself of that or rather God keeps reminding me of that when I hear stories of lost jobs, sickness, divorce, kids who won't grow up or do so in very very bad fashion! I'm soo soo lucky.

I've found some new friends via facebook as well, I found another Dallas girl with my same maiden name.  We'll meet someday and compare lives!  I've become friends with an author who has written a fabulous "manual" on "The Best of Everything After Fifty" Barbara Hannah Grufferman.  She has some excellent tips and strategies for female survival! 

I've also lost 17 pounds since January and am walking over 10 miles a week at this point.  I'm planning to increase that over the next 6 weeks and will add some run/walking to the mix. 

In the words of Gloria Gainer - I WILL SURVIVE.

As 2009 comes to a close so goes my 50th year…. Wow. Being born in 1960, it was always easy to track my age…. 1969, nine years old. 1978, eighteen years old… 2000, forty years old. And then there’s this year.

As 2010 looms ahead I’m finding myself very reflective as this milestone gets closer…. 50
Fifty
Fifty Years Old
FIFTY YEARS OLD!!!!

How the heck did that happen? And what have I been doing or what have I accomplished in the past fifty years?

Decade One –
• For goodness sake, the first decade was probably the most eventful for just me… I learned to walk, talk, grew a full set of teeth, lost those and got a whole new set!

• I learned to ride a bike
• I became an aunt
• I learned to roller skate
• I broke my arm
• I learned to water ski
• I learned to snow ski
• I learned to plant sod, yes I did.
• I became a Christian
• I made lifelong friends.. Friends I’ve lost and then found again. Some friends, never really lost but now “reclaimed”… how much fun has that been.








Decade Two –
• I learned to play the clarinet (really, I did)
• I left some of those lifelong friends. Moving to a new school, in a new town I thought my happiness had ended… But, I made more of those lifelong friends
• I watched my father battle cancer and WIN
• I learned to drive
• I performed on stage
• I met husband #2 (yes, before I met husband #1)

• I graduated high school



• I GOT MARRIED!!! (#1)









Decade Three –


• I had a baby
• I divorced and started a long chapter in my life as a single mom. The most rewarding, unsettling, scary, happy time. All of decade 3, my twenty’s was spent single.
• I got a passport and traveled out of the country, on business even!
• I learned to country dance (and did this a lot!)

Decade Four –
• I moved a lot
• I got fired
• I was on Food Stamps
• I went back to college (not for long)
• I got a great job



• My son started high school


• My son learned to drive and got his license

• I got that first phone call…. “Mom, I had a wreck…..”
• I took my son to California for Graduation, all on my own.








• I had lots of bad dates
My son Graduated high school
• I got married (to that guy I had met in high school before I met husband #1)

• I got 3 more kids!!
• My son moved off to school, and I cried.


Decade Five -
• I had too many surgeries
• We bought a house
• We bought house #2
• I buried my dog, and I cried, a lot

• All our kids got married





• I lost my dad and I cried


• I left that great job for what I thought was another great job
• I was wrong about the job thing

• We became grandparents




• And we became grandparents again



Decade Five is just about over.

I have 7 months until I have lived half a century. I still have many of those friends I made back in Decades #1 and 2.



How amazing is that. My heart has been broken and healed too many times and I’m sure that will happen again. By the time the end of my fifth decade rolls around I’ll be grandmother again and hopefully (if news is good over the next couple of weeks) another will be on the way….

I just wonder what can the next decade hold for us, for me. What will I, what can I accomplish… shouldn’t things be slowing down…. Seems like everything is speeding up! I know there are things I want to accomplish. Can I do those things in the next seven months? There are things I need to do! How can I be NEARLY 50?

3 comments:

Kathleen Riley said...

What a great post!

RockMeGently said...

That was lovely, my dear. Much health and happiness for "50" and beyond!
Sheree :)

amy ferris said...

so absolutely stunning & gorgeous & filled with such beauty.
thank you thank you THANK YOU!!!!!
all my love,
amy ferris