February 21, 2013

Wow! So, what does becoming fifty mean to me? Feel like to me? Sound like to me? And what does it look like to me?

Becoming fifty means I made it through hard times, sad times, good times and unforgettable miracles and tragedies in my life and outside of my life. It means that I get one more day, one more year, one more decade or one more lifetime to continue to grow, live experience the art of life.

I often felt uncomfortable and sometimes even ‘stupid’ (I hesitate to use that word) for being older than my classmates from my second year of first grade on through and beyond high school despite missing much of first grade the first time around due to hospitalized illness. Now though, I’m proud of my age and who I’ve become and who I am growing up to be.

Fifty feels like yesterday and the day before and so on except with an extra day’s experience every new day. I don’t feel old because I’m certainly not old; I’m only just beginning!

Fifty years old may sound old to a younger generation but it sounds young to a more mature generation and to me well, it sounds like a number. Fifty spiders is a lot; fifty pennies- not so much, fifty minutes can vary.

Fifty sounds to me like the beginning, a new beginning. I’m comfortable with that and I’m very much looking forward to all of it.

Fifty looks like a young, vibrant, energetic, healthful time of life. Fifty looks like the freedom at twenty with much more knowledge and respect. It looks like the time of my life when big and happy things will take place. Fifty and beyond will be as breathtaking as the tallest mountains full of color, the widest ocean of clear aqua and the wide open fields of wildflowers and bluest of skies.

Fifty is where preparation and experience meets opportunity.

Fifty, yes please, I’ll take it!

Dawn Marie Hamel-Silva-? J