It is with each passing year, we celebrate our beginning, our origin, our birth...that magic moment that we were released from the water to the air; from the warm into the cold, from expectation into reality. Such is the stuff of many great stories. I cannot pretend to know or understand the mysteries of birth or the female body or even conception; but since you are reading and I am writing; we WON our race. It's September 10th and I hope my father is celebrating his 61st birthday well. Funny thing about birthdays...they signify the beginning; but always leave you thinking about the end.
Anyway, It's fascinating some of the time to watch people age. You compare your past memories against what you see before you and your mind fills in the blanks. I am sure its like the hope a young couple has when they first behold their new bundle of joy and look into the future waiting for its life to fill in the blanks. One thing I notice for sure; the older we get, the more like children we become. A little of the magic comes back into our lives. We begin to relish mystery and surprise again; hope for the impossible and reach for the attainable. There's alot of directions this blog could take; especially since the one typing is sitting in a chair in the middle of nowhere, drifting where time and distance from reality are immeasureable. Remember when you used to think; someday I will be 20, 30, 40 or whatever age.
Now its exactly the same except: I wish I was 20, 30, 40 or whatever. At 40, I am not sure there is anywhere else I would rather be...which sounds funny even to me; nontheless true. Since I cannot write what must be going through his mind; I substitute with my own reflections and observations. Ironicly, as people get older; they tend to communicate a lot more about ANYTHING. I can remember a time that 10 words in a sentence might happen on holidays or right after I did something bad and some memorable punishment was forthcoming. NOW, its like a faucet without the spicket. Timeout! Whoa! Way too much information. I didn't aks for that! Uhh...I need to go. (just keepin' it real!)
It's all been enwisening to watch and experience aging. My wife said somthing once (sorry honey, just an expression...) that rings true during a conversation with her father, "It's ok that you suffer from old age — it helps me prepare by learning from your example...who else is going to teach me..." I am sure I am butchering her conversation; but the jest of it is that those before us prepare our understanding of what is to come. It's easy to look and see where and how the wrinkles form, the grey hairs, the hairline or lack of, the softening of the body etc. Afterall, you've seen very few musclular babies! We return the way we came in. I comprehend that is all its ugly realities and that's ok (or at least it might as well be).
Anyway, like children, our faces light up when we receive the gifts we REALLY wanted or see some old friend we truely have missed or just get mystified by the simple pleasure of living; even just watching fireflies across grassy fields at dusk. I saw his eyes light up at the mention of a 4-wheeler (not that "I think" he needs one or that it is the safest of presents); but it certainly frames up the Christmas list (or later) if "the Lord be willin' and the creek dont rise." (southern colloquialism) Life is short and precious; live it to the fullest. Every birthday is a tremendous blessing and another chance to smile and pass it on so someone else can too!
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