It’s not just another year.

It’s my birthday. That calls for a musing.

It’s a ‘milestone’ birthday as I officially qualify for Medicare.

It’s a wonderful birthday because I am at this moment pretty healthy, and blessed with good genes, and love to move, to dance, to be outdoors, and to breathe in fresh air. I have reached 65 with few physical ailments and with my brain somewhat alert and working.

I celebrate my life – and the way all these years have passed, and who I have met all along the way.

I praise God for giving me ‘this’ and I know it is done through total grace, because I am no more deserving than any other person on this earth. I am grateful.

Life is never perfect. And, the Lord knows I am not. I judge too quickly, and I make assumptions when I should not. I think the years have helped me to try to be less so, and to be open and accepting of change. The more I become that way though I do find it is harder to converse with those who do not feel the same way.

Birthdays are reminders of change. The body certainly is changing as much as I wish it wouldn’t. Time does not stand still. Progress happens. I have made my mind up to embrace change. I have put my mindset into forward motion. I have seen examples of people who don’t and they become ‘old’ quickly, and grouchy, and just upset about everything.

So – I dance! I go to concerts I love! I play music!

I acknowledge modern advances and I go with them – yes, I drive an electric vehicle now. I live with a man who feels the same way. He’s a tech junkie. He pushes me forward: loving and looking at the future.

I have said this for awhile now but I feel sometimes more comfortable among the young and very young. I love hanging with my daughters, their spouses, their friends – and of course my grandchildren. They still have sparks of life! They laugh more than older people. I gravitate towards them.

So, my birthday is making me a day older. That’s all it is really. But, hopefully it’s also making me a day more excited about what comes. Here, now – and in the future.

I have learned to live without fear controlling life. I have learned to turn off the voices that want to make me and others think life is going down the tubes. Because – it isn’t!! I don’t listen to false narratives and theories and scary lies. They are rampant right now and I sadly see how it affects others.

It’s my birthday and I don’t know how long I will be on this earth, but I sure as heck am not going to live my remaining days (or years!) naysaying, and blaming others. No way.

It’s my birthday – and I’m 65 – and I never imagined myself this age when I was young. I celebrate, and I pray that my next birthdays will be as good as this one.