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Happy Birthday to Ellen Degeneres, Paul Newman, Kirk Franklin, and oh, me. We all celebrated birthdays of varying degrees on Saturday, the 26th.
Thank you so much to all of you who sent birthday greetings here and on Facebook.
I did indeed feel celebrated. In terms of numbers, wasn't my most significant birthday ever, but I think it might've been my most celebrated. I asked for two specific gatherings and instead ended up with seven! Talk about abundance.
Among the parties, cakes and gifts, some of the moments I will remember include going for our traditional birthday mani/pedi with Cousin Rachael, whose birthday is 2-days before mine, and her daughter, Arden, who is 4. Arden also happens to be my goddaughter and an excellent nail polish color selector. I now have ten purple toenails with sparkles as a souvenir of our afternoon.
My friend, Marianne Williamson, was in town to give a talk focused on her new book, "The Age of Miracles." We went to dinner Friday night. Marianne got in my car and before we were even out of the hotel driveway asks me, "So, what are your dreams you want to come true this year?"
"Whoa," I wanted to tap on the brakes. "You don't waste anytime getting straight to it?"
"No way," she said with no apology in her voice. "I don't believe in small talk. Let's get right to it."
And so you get the essence of Marianne. "It's time people," she is saying. The tagline on "The Age of Miracles" is "Embracing the New Midlife." Blog confession here, someone mentions, "midlife," "middle-aged," and I want to whip my head around looking for whomever you're talking about. "What, you mean me?" Never occurred to me to lump myself in with them! Yet, even I, who was no math major, can add up the numbers and divide. Take any ripe old age you'd like to live to, 80's? 90's? Now divide by 2. There you got it. Right where I sit. Hello midlife.
No need to bemoan, "Ug, it's all passing me by!" Not now. Talk about winning a prize. If you suddenly found out you had a bonus 15 years to add onto your life what would you do when that time?" The middle of your life isn't time to retire, Marianne says, it's time to re-fire! Speak your truth. Embrace what is and what can be.
The dinner with Marianne was special and inspiring. I also got a lot out of going to her talk the next day.
One of the most profound thoughts came from a woman making a comment in the audience. She shared a short story of how a friend of hers recently had a birthday and was complaining that she was 66. The storyteller had very little patience for this attitude, explaining that she was a breast cancer survivor. She said when people ask her how old she is, she says, "I GET to be 44."
I like that kind of thinking. It reminds me of my own take on age that I came to a long time ago. I'm fascinated by people, especially women who lie about their age. "I'm 29," some will declare. My favorite is my friend, Betsy, who turned 33 while we were covering the start of the war in from Kuwait. "I'll be stopping here at 33," she declared. "If it was good enough for Jesus, it's good enough for me." (If you ever cover a war, I highly recommend you make it a point to work with someone who can crack you up on a regular basis.)
Meanwhile, I'd like to throw this one in the hopper. I have long contended that if you're going to lie about your age, you should lie UP. Consider this, if I tell you I'm 19, no doubt you'd look at me and say, "Oh, honey, you've done some rough living!" But, if I tell you I'm 65, you couldn't help but remark, "Damn! You look good!"
I will tell you what is looking good---this upcoming year. I'm excited for all the moments and miracles ahead. Many I hope you'll share with me right here at DarynKagan.com.
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