Birthday Archives %- – Rock The Wrinkle

Birthdays. Lots of fun (?) as we get older. Even our friends aren’t too thrilled when our day comes around.

Everyone’s busy. Everyone’s broke. Everyone’s scared to consider they also are aging.

But we celebrate them. Or at least, we stop and consider them. Even though as we age, the age we are “sounds” different than it did when we were much younger. Remember how old you thought your 45-year-old art teacher was? How over-the-hill the bus driver was? How you’d never look as “bad” as that gray-haired woman who lived down the street with all the cats?

50? Yeech, that’s when you stop staying up late at night. 60? You probably won’t leave the house then. 70? Teeth in a jar.

And then we turn these ages…and realize how untrue all that is, how we had no clue when we were young that we were infants compared to what life is all about. The experiences we have, the wisdom we gain, the pain we live through…it all makes us who we are right now.

And that includes those wrinkles. And extra inches around our waistline. Nature is going to do what nature is going to do. We don’t have to completely give up, we can get off the couch and go to the gym, walk 10,000+ steps a day or do some chair aerobics, and have an apple instead of a snack cake.

And we can celebrate right now, in this moment, being alive and not being a kid anymore. How great it is to no longer worry what everyone thinks about us all the time. Not letting fear rule every decision we make. Not putting important things off because we think we’ll live forever. Not thinking every disappointment or failure has doomed us for eternity.

In fact, it’s those disappointments and failures that give the cake of life its flavor. You might not taste it at first, you might have to wait quite a while, but you’ll eventually detect the spices that make up your unique recipe: the heartbreaks, getting fired, making a bad choice or two or three, poor judgment, bad haircuts and more.

And as baby boomers, we get to celebrate what all we’ve seen and it’s all part of us as well…landing on the moon, the battle for civil rights, protecting the environment…it’s not too late to stand up and make our voices heard when we see things going in the wrong direction. We’re still here. We’re smarter and more patient now (in most cases) and we have a lot to contribute.

So light those candles. And make that wish come true. Every day could be the birth of something wonderful—if we help make it so.

“Our wrinkles are our medals of the passage of life. They are what we have been through and who we want to be.”

Lauren Hutton

Rites of passage. Whether it’s turning 50, 60, 70, 80, or beyond, we feel them. They get our attention. They get the attention of everyone in our family and circle of friends, because they can’t believe we are whatever age we are.

Big birthdays sober us. They remind us of our immortality.

But they also can be quite emancipating. They tap us on the shoulder and urge us to look ahead down that trail, and wonder where it will take us. Where do we want to go? What do we want to achieve? Are we done chasing goals of the past? Are we ready to take a breath, or is it time to gear up for new challenges?

There’s a sadness to passing from one decade to another. Who doesn’t pause a bit when they realize they can’t quite move as fast as they once did. Can’t get on the floor to play with the dog and get up quickly (or at least, without some assistance). Can’t eat all that spicy food without raiding the medicine cabinet at 2 a.m. for the antacid. Can’t even stay up late…and late has gone from 11 p.m. to 8:45 p.m.

Still, there’s a giddiness to growing older. You just have to look for it.

You have permission to give up some things. Stop worrying about so much. Know that you have gained wisdom the younger set doesn’t yet have, (even though they’re convinced you don’t know what you’re talking about).

Smile a bit more. Nap a bit more. Take it all in. Or not.

If you’re coming up on a big birthday, turn it on its head and think about what gifts it can bring. More time to travel. Walk on the beach. Wear a floppy hat. Stop dying your hair.

Or start dying it purple.

.When she turned 70 last year, actress Sally Field said, “I’ve gathered strength behind my years, I owned them, I’ve earned them, I’ve deserved them, I have a right to have them. Behind my years I have value that doesn’t come when you’re 50 or 40 or 30 or 20, it doesn’t come until you’ve been in that saddle for a number of years.”

Amen! Here’s to rocking the wrinkle however you can.

Here’s some other thoughts on jumping into that next decade:

“The aging process has you firmly in its grasp if you never get the urge to throw a snowball.”~Doug Larson

“You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt; as young as your self-confidence, as old as your fear; as young as your hope, as old as your despair”.~Douglas MacArthur

“In a man’s middle years there is scarcely a part of the body he would hesitate to turn over to the proper authorities”. ~E.B. White

“The first sign of maturity is the discovery that the volume knob also turns to the left.”.~Jerry M. Wright

“I think your whole life shows in your face and you should be proud of that”. ~Lauren Bacall

You have come a long way. You’ve endured a lot of struggles and pain. You’ve touched more people’s lives than you will ever know.

And you are still here!

Celebrate!