For the past ten months, the question of how I would most like to celebrate my January milestone birthday, has come up many times. Becoming seventy is a huge deal, especially when one is fortunate enough to have pain-free hips and knees, not to mention totally good health. I blew it for my sixtieth birthday. I had so many fantasies about how to mark the occasion and, a the time, was still in the working world which allowed me to listen to co-workers who were also planning their own celebrations. Dancing the tango in Argentina, going on safari, running, leaping, jumping.....I worked among some highly energized and may I say, well-funded people in New York City. I knew that my plans would never hold a candle to their plans but it was nice to think that I could carve out at least twenty-four hours to call my own. After all, I had artfully arranged a special trip, complete with good friends at our side, to Italy in celebration of my husband's same milestone birthday. One day would not be asking the world. So, the day came and the day left. I resorted to making my own cake (a gesture that did not go un-noticed by my aged parents who essentially mocked my efforts) and finally, inviting a good friend out to dinner (she had no idea why) because....the day belonged to a husband with the flu and a grand-daughter who was turning two. Another baby on the way was also a huge pre-empter. Okay, so it wasn't about me. I've got so much more to be grateful for in my life.
Well, now, a decade down the road and things are going to be different. Or, so I hope. If you're following me, you must realize that there is another milestone birthday in the pipeline and it's rapidly approaching. I do not intend to make my own cake and if the flu hits, I'm heading for a hotel. The way I figure it, this is possibly the last milestone that will allow for frivolity. The next one, I may simply choose to ignore. Time will tell.
So. Here's the plan.
On my "list" of things I considered for celebrating, the word "challenge" came up more than once. For my seventieth birthday, I want to be challenged. I want to celebrate all the things that I have done to change my life. I want to reward myself, just this once, for good behavior, for good choices made, for kicking a few potential health problems in the butt. If this sounds self-absorbed, I could not care less. If checking off one thing from that list of life's to-do's is what I will have ta-done, then I will consider this coming birthday as the best ever. Please, God.
For this birthday.....drum roll......
I'm taking a walk. A very long walk. In the Spring. After flu season. After snow season.
Not the entire stretch Just the last 111 kilometers. Just a week. Just because.
caminoways.com
Well, now, a decade down the road and things are going to be different. Or, so I hope. If you're following me, you must realize that there is another milestone birthday in the pipeline and it's rapidly approaching. I do not intend to make my own cake and if the flu hits, I'm heading for a hotel. The way I figure it, this is possibly the last milestone that will allow for frivolity. The next one, I may simply choose to ignore. Time will tell.
So. Here's the plan.
On my "list" of things I considered for celebrating, the word "challenge" came up more than once. For my seventieth birthday, I want to be challenged. I want to celebrate all the things that I have done to change my life. I want to reward myself, just this once, for good behavior, for good choices made, for kicking a few potential health problems in the butt. If this sounds self-absorbed, I could not care less. If checking off one thing from that list of life's to-do's is what I will have ta-done, then I will consider this coming birthday as the best ever. Please, God.
For this birthday.....drum roll......
I'm taking a walk. A very long walk. In the Spring. After flu season. After snow season.
Not the entire stretch Just the last 111 kilometers. Just a week. Just because.
caminoways.com
