Tag Archives: Birthday

It’s My Birthday!

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Today is my birthday. In recent years, this has been a fun day where I have traveled and adventured. Today will not be an adventure day. It’s a good old fashioned work day and I’m ok with that. I like my job and am increasingly grateful for it.

How old am I? Well, I’m at an age that I had to stop and figure it out. Since math isn’t my strong suit, I actually pulled up the calculator on my phone because I didn’t trust my mathing skills.

Remember when you were a kid and you had a countdown till your birthday for months ahead of time? You were ever prepared with gift ideas and you always knew your precise age. Six-and-a-half or nine-and-three-quarters.

I have known some older folks who reverted back to that kind of age-keeping. It seems to come back in style once people hit their nineties so that suddenly they’re almost 93 or they just turned 95.

And that’s a good thing. We aren’t guaranteed a long life and aging is a gift not given to everyone. I know plenty of people who weren’t blessed with long years so aging and birthdays should be celebrated.

Those wrinkles, that dry skin, and the veins that are showing on your hands are all trophies and proof of what it has taken to stay on this earth.

I like to spend some time leading up to every birthday taking stock. Am I happy? What can I do better or differently? What needs attention? It’s a little like New Years for me – a great time to assess and set some new goals.

This hasn’t been the easiest year. I still struggle to get some health issues under control and have adventured less than normal. There have been some good things though and some lessons learned.

One of my goals lately has been to soften my life. I am looking for ways to bring peace and comfort into my home and routines. The world is an increasingly harsh and scary place. Why wouldn’t I want to make my corner of it as calm and soft as possible?

This is a good place to start on this first day of a new year. It is the first day of the rest of my life. In fact, it’s the first day of the rest of your life too. Maybe you need to take stock as well.

You’re still wondering about my age?

48.

Have a good day, friends. It’s my birthday! Go celebrate with some ice cream!

PS- today’s image is at Huntington Reservation, Cleveland. That’s Lake Erie and in the moment I snapped this picture, I was completely at peace.

It’s My Birthday

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It’s my birthday.

I’m at that age where I have to stop and do actual math to find my age.

Remember when you were a kid and you were five and a half? Ten and three quarters? While the fine art of aging loses its luster at some point in mid-life, people start measuring their years in fractions again when they are very old. Suddenly they’re almost 90 or ninety five and a half.

I say good for them.

I’m neither young nor old yet I still sort of celebrate my birthday. After all, aging is a privilege and not everyone gets to do it. That white hair and the arthritis in your knee? Those are battle scars. They’re trophies to be celebrated because you are aging.

This year I have made a point to celebrate this most recent trip around the sun by doing small things every day. Some hikes, a library book sale and a new t-shirt that features both a cat and a stack of books are among the daily gifts I have given myself these last two weeks.

Some of these gifts to myself were free and some had a price tag but the concerted effort to be kind to myself has been a good exercise.

Charles Dickens began his book A Tale of Two Cities with the now infamous line “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” This statement certainly resonates as I think back over the last year. My health continues to be a challenge but I am still trying to fight the good fight. Adventures have been less frequent but just as exciting when I do make it out. Plus, I found new hiking buddies and met someone special who has set my world on its ear in the best possible way.

With each year we have a choice: cling to the old and stay the same or release bad habits and embrace self improvement.

Personally, I will keep trying!

46 Trips Around The Sun

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Today is August 14 and that means it’s my birthday. I’m 46 and I know this for sure because I took the time to do the math. Yes, I’m at that age when I don’t even know how old I am.

Unlike little kids who always whip out the half (like nine and a half ) and the old folks who tell you what they almost are (almost 96), I don’t bother knowing my age at all.

Normally, I like to write something introspective for my birthday. What did I learn this year? What mattered to me?

This time though, I am struggling to care about any of that. Am I in a slump? Maybe. Will I come back to life with my upcoming travels? Maybe. I suspect I’m just worn down from fighting my own fledgling health and from changes that have made a big part of my life more stressful.

So, instead of looking backward, today I will look to the future and what I hope to work on in the coming year. Think of it as a sort of to do list.

1. Health – My health has got to be a priority. I know what needs to be done in terms of diet, fresh air, exercise and mental health. I just. Need. To. Do. It.

2. Adventure – Weekend adventures have been rare this summer. It’s time to dust off the maps and spend more time adventuring. It’s good for the mind and the soul.

3. One Small Thing – Continue using this method to accomplish stuff around the house. These last two weeks have been too distracting to care about that list but I’m ready to get back at it. Click here to learn about that.

4. Read – Reading is important to me but my attention span has been waning this year. Time to hit the books again!

5. Work – My work life once was intentional and somewhat well juggled but I have lost control. While I don’t know that I can mend the situation, I should at least try to find better ways to manage the new normal.

6. Just Say No – I forget this sometimes but No is a complete sentence. I need to stop allowing myself to be guilted into stuff I shouldn’t do and I need to say no to things that interfere with my priorities.

7. Just Say Yes – While saying no to things that don’t matter, it’s equally important to say Yes to the things that do matter. Yes is also a complete sentence.

So there you go. These are the priorities for this next trip around the sun! I once read that the first step to getting somewhere is to decide not to stay where you are. This resonated with me and maybe it will with you too.

In case you are wondering, the above picture is from Rock House in the Hocking Hills State Park. It’s a break in the cave that allows you to see light from the darkness.

A Perfect Birthday Eve

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Today is my birthday.

I believe that it is as important to say adieu to the old year in a positive manner as it is to start the new year off on the right foot.

Last year’s birthday eve was an utter disaster. Since I have no interest in reliving it, I’ll let you just click this link and read about it here.

I usually like to reflect on accomplishments and lessons learned during the last year. Honestly, I don’t know what I learned this year other than how to adapt, make do and survive. Changes at work and a major hiccup in my physical well being have dominated these last several months.

I’m tired and I’m tired of feeling like I’m living in a fog while fighting to figure out my new life. The issues that come with hypothyroidism are surprisingly difficult to shake.

It’s not all bad though. My health has improved and things have settled down at work. I’m hopeful that I’m headed in the right direction because survival mode is no place to dwell for too long. Once it becomes a way of life, it’s hard to get back to something better.

But I did get to travel some and explored a good bit in my own area this last year. Sunflower fields, a real life haunted house, fall in Denver, a trip down the river and a whirlwind trip through our nation’s Capitol are among my favorite memories. I even saw Old Glory and the only DaVinci in America during that DC trip. Of course, most of those things occurred before my thyroid diagnosis.

So there was a lot of good amidst the sad, the frustrating and the exhausting. It wasn’t all bad but it was still vital that the last day of my 44th trip around the sun be a good one.

And so I made it that way.

First up, I met a friend for a biplane ride at the James A. Rhodes Airport in Jackson County. My friend Dewey had brought his biplane Ace – a 1929 Travel Air – for some good old fashioned Barnstorming. I never pass up an opportunity to ride with him and it was a bucket list item for my friend too!

I had actually met Dewey at this airport a few years ago. You can also read about that experience – still one of my favorite memories. Learn more about him and his planes at his website.

The airport was hosting a fly-in so there were other aircraft including an incredible B-25 Mitchell Bomber from the Tri State Warbirds Museum.

And this nice Stearman which I believe was a World War II era training plane.

It was a gorgeous day. At eighty degrees, it was much cooler than we’ve seen lately and the sky was a brilliant blue. So after the airport event, I swung by Lake Katherine Nature Preserve for a peaceful hike.

It was wonderful having a moment in the woods to reflect, move and simply breathe. Sometimes you need to just breathe and do nothing else.

All told, this was a perfect day. Planes and nature. What more can a gal want?

Starting A New Year

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It’s 12:34 a.m. on my birthday. I spent my last full day as a 43 year old person getting the gray washed out of my hair as the jingle told us, going on a failed adventure and watching undertakers carry my aunt’s lifeless body from her home.

I need my new year to be better than this.

I tend to get more philosophical around my birthday, thinking about what I have learned in the last year and what I think the next one should look like.

If I am to be completely honest with you and myself, I don’t really have it in me to do all that today. For the last few weeks, death and dying have been more prominent themes in my family than life and living.

That’s the season my family is in. It’s natural and that’s ok. That doesn’t mean we have to like it but that’s the thing about life – we don’t always have to like it but we do have to muddle through the best we can until conditions improve.

If anything, this time has been a superb reminder of why we should never complain about growing older.

After all, not everyone gets to do it.

Even with Covid limitations and even with family issues, over this last year I have managed to find enjoyment at home, to get out on adventures and to have some special experiences both near and far.

While hibernating at home this winter, I binged on I Love Lucy. I had bought the complete series and watched it in order- some episodes more than once. When conditions allowed, I visited her hometown and soaked in the recreated TV sets and had a few beautiful days wandering around western New York State.

I have walked hundreds of miles through parks and museums, wearing out shoes as I set out to see as much of the world as I can. This year found me exploring historic sites as well as natural places like a gorgeous sunflower field. I learned about Annie Oakley’s triumphant rise to fame from humble beginnings in Ohio. This year taught me that Buffalo Bill believed in equal pay and equal opportunities for women and Native Americans at a time that people still believed a woman’s place was at home and that Native Americans had no place in this country at all.

This year I cruised down highways in the Nerdmobile, floated down the Ohio and Muskingum rivers atop a paddle boat and soared high above the earth in a biplane.

The mountainside community of Thomas, West Virginia is where I learned about how immigrants of numerous nationalities lived and worked peacefully. Despite cultural and language barriers they were united by patriotism for their new home and the opportunities afforded to them in America.

This is where I saw the most stunning fall foliage of my lifetime.

I followed signs down country roads to find a working mill in Virginia, had a chance encounter with an artist and slammed on the brakes for many a roadside attraction or pretty scene.

I finally found a home for my pulpit, a family heirloom that I had been keeping safe until the right person came along and needed it for a church. When I couldn’t travel, I had books to keep my mind busy and I finally created a real office space for my work from home lifestyle with new furniture and decor.

When I did travel, I had the cutest little cat to come home to at night. Everyone should have someone in their life who gets this excited simply because they came home.

No, I didn’t leap from airplanes or fly off to exotic places. I flew to Denver and road tripped as much as possible. I daydreamed about all the places I still want to go and chided myself for not winning the lottery yet as that’s what it will take to fund the adventures I wish to take. Of course, I don’t actually play…..

For the last couple of months, I have spent more time getting to know my aunt and listening to her stories. Wednesday was my night to visit and to take something special for our dinner and dessert. It was far more fun and rewarding than I first expected.

As we have been bracing ourselves for the loss of this important person, we welcomed three small souls who have brought much joy and laughter to our lives. One of the most rewarding things you can do is to extend kindness to someone who has nothing to offer but their companionship.

This year has taught me to look more closely at what’s in my own area and that it’s ok to not plan, to just wander and make the best of things as they are. I have perfected the art of wandering this earth safely and appreciating whatever fun I’m able to find.

Friday’s adventure was a bust. I went with a friend to a hot air balloon festival where the balloons were grounded for weather, a detail event organizers didn’t mention until after we had paid for non-refundable admission. But we met a nice elderly man there and had a great dinner at Boston’s Restaurant upon his recommendation. We laughed a lot at the ridiculousness of our day and also got to see a gorgeous sky after sunset, a true gift at the end of a challenging week.

We had another chance encounter with a kind human when we experienced some trouble late in the day. I want to tell you about that experience but not today.

The moral of the story is that life is filled with sunrises and sunsets, with great fun and some disappointments. As my aunt slipped the bonds of this earth, somewhere else a child was born. As my trip around the sun comes to a close and another starts, there is both bitterness and sweetness.

If not for these things, life simply wouldn’t be life. What does the song say? We all want happiness but we can’t have a rainbow without a little rain.

A Birthday Adventure

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My parents were excited to plan a birthday adventure for us on Friday. We didn’t wander very far because of Covid worries but they successfully found a place that I had never been and that I thoroughly enjoyed.

They wouldn’t tell me where we were going as they thought the surprise would be more fun.

Turns out we went to Cross Mound Park near Tarlton. This park exists to preserve an Indian mound that is in the shape of a cross. It sits atop a hill with some walking trails through the woods around the mound.

I didn’t get a decent picture of the mound. Honestly, it’s low to the ground and would be hard to make out if you didn’t know what you were looking at – one reason I’m really glad it has been preserved in this park.

The crown jewel of the park is a beautiful pedestrian bridge that was built by the WPA in 1936. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) employed millions of Americans, mostly unskilled men, to construct buildings, roads, bridges and other projects across the country. It was part of President Roosevelt’s 1935 New Deal to help struggling Americans survive the Great Depression.

Today we can thank the WPA for countless things like hospitals, courthouses, parks and fairgrounds. They even employed artists, musicians and writers.

This bridge is the only remaining WPA project in Fairfield County and it was rehabbed a few years ago. It’s a suspension style bridge with steel cables and tall concrete entrances on either end.

The bridge spans Salt Creek which happened to be a bit low during our visit. I scurried right down the bank to skip stones and take in the view of the bridge from below.

While the park is just outside a village, it is peaceful here, serene. It’s one of those places that hides in plain sight, providing easy access to the sounds of nature- the trickle of water, a woodpecker overhead, the call of a frog in the distance.

The walking trail to the mound is a bit steep but the trails at the top of the hill are easy and pretty.

We also drove some roads none of us had been on, did some antiquing, saw a 600 year old white oak tree, and had a picnic lunch.

We are off the beaten path, simple pleasures kind of people so it was a good day, just wandering around and seeing what there was to see.

It’s hard for this control freak to appreciate a surprise but they did good planning this adventure!