I love getting older...really!

It happens to be my birthday today...51 and counting! While I know that I'm probably in the minority on this, I actually really like getting older! I have especially found the decade of the 50's to be wonderful on so many levels. I have never in my life felt as comfortable and secure in/with myself and enjoyed the person I have become as I have in the past year. I have become a firm believer in the concept that age is just a number and that we are as young as we feel/act. In the past year I have been much less likely to care what others think of me and much more likely to make choices that make me happy. And, until just a month or so ago, I had never been referred to as a MILF before. I didn't even know what the word meant when my daughter blurted out one day that one of her guy friends had me listed in his phone that way! Once I got over my initial shock I have to admit that I walked away with a little smirk on my face(:

Last night my two older kids had a boat load of friends over for a little hookah party. When I went to check on them my daughter (God bless her) proceeds to tell me that Marti (one of the many girls in the room) thinks I'm hot and that no one there could believe I was turning 51 today..."you look like you're 30" one of the girls said...nods all around the room at that comment (and my two kids beamed at the complement). After I checked what they were smoking in their hookah pipe, I politely thanked them all and told them they were welcome at my house any day of the week! Now, I'm not meaning to toot my own horn here, I'm simply trying to make the point that I don't feel old and I don't act old and I have now become convinced that it must show. Some how, some where, it has to show.

Each year on my birthday I contemplate how grateful I am to be healthy and happy (and on those years that I wasn't happy, I availed myself to a bottle of Tequila). I'm grateful this year to be enjoying life more than I ever remember enjoying it. I'm grateful for 3 kids who love me and who are learning to make their way through life in a positive way. I'm grateful for amazing friends who love me beyond my understanding and who allow me to grow and transform. I'm thankful for my dog who believes the sun rises and sets solely for me. And I'm thankful for the wisdom and grace that comes with living life.

To all of you women out there that dislike the aging process I say be free! Be free to become whoever you wish to become and be free to enjoy the process!