28 January 2016

Dear Me,
I would just like to wish me a very happy birthday. Here’s hoping that I have a fantastic day with sunshine, smiles and lots of hugs and kisses…and a fabulous year!

Waking up this morning I thought about getting older. Chalking up yet another year is definitely a cause for celebration. The years are piling on though and it feels like each year is passing faster than the previous one. Age does not bother me. Someone commented that this must be number 39 and I quickly responded that no but thanks for the compliment. I smiled in the full knowledge that that was not what he meant. I am 55. Wow! Seemed so very far out in the future not too long ago. And here I am. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. I love my life. The whole messy thing.

The start of a perfect birthday – a delicious brunch with a wonderful friend. Wonderful conversation, secrets shared, viewpoints exchanged and discussed. Exquisite hours relaxing in good company.

I had a wonderful evening in the marvelous company of three special people, laughing at the antics of my crazy, and crazy cute labrador. We ate spaghetti with meatsauce. We wracked our brains at a puzzle problem. The evening was plain and simple – having a relaxed and enjoyable time of it. When I was on my own once more, I read the lovely messages people had posted to my timeline, sent to me by sms, taking time to respond to them.

I rejoiced in being reminded of a piece of music played by the imminent duo Joao Gilberto and Stan Getz. I promptly found a couple of albums and I then sat enjoying the music while savouring the fragrance and taste of a very delicious armagnac. Pensive. Reflecting. I am enormously grateful for the twists and turns my life has taken. My horizons have been challenged and broadened. I have come into contact with the people who have been right for me at the right time. I am learning to be true to myself and loving every minute of it, becoming more and more curious about, well, everything. Discovering that the only thing that I absolutely must is to be true to myself. I owe this to no one other than myself. As Jacob Nordby, Blessed are the Weird, so beautifully expresses it “You owe no one…no idea, no organisation, no belief, nothing at all the rest of your life. You only owe it to yourself. To live it beautifully. To express it authentically. To expand it joyfully. To become so clear on what fits and what does not that the only decision left is being true to yourself at every turn.”

A huge thank you to all who made my day a very special one. Grateful to the people who touch my life bringing me lessons to learn, emotions to understand and deal with. Grateful to the people who are in my life who accept and appreciate and love me just the way I am. I am still growing, continually learning every step of the way, still curious. I AM!