A Year Of "Upper A's"

Age 3.

Saturday, it's my birthday. All I want is:

Sunshine
A light warm summer breeze
A hammock
A willow tree
An inspiring book to ignite

A fresh outlook
Some needed dancing (it tickles my insides)
A few cooking lessons (for the sensuality of it)
More friendship and gatherings (to put life in perspective)

Maybe it's just winter has made me feel the doldrums of routine to such an excruciating extreme and a need to shed the weight of being (not to some "unbearable lightness," mind you, but some shedding is in order 'round here), for Adam said to me yesterday when I asked:

"What do you think mommy does all day?"

To which he replied, "read sad books."

Age 5. To think Adam is turning six next month!

Huh. This mom likes to be told by my child all my weaknesses. Isn't that what in large part, children are for? Maybe it's that serious furrow that's got him thinking that mommy might be sad. It's time to lighten up with the likes of spring.

The old perm days -- me at thirteen.






High School Graduation.

I hate to think that my forties has brought that seriousness that I used to see in other middle-aged people! Yet, it's a part of life -- we have children, we worry about many things, we are really busy, we are really tired. Still, a part of me never understands why some people want to be eighteen again.

Age 24

Being young was really difficult for me. Sure, I had good times, but my youth lacked a purpose that I acquired later in life.

I watch Adam grow up fast and I also learned this week that my cousin had her first grandchild -- her daughter, I recall, who seemed to be born just yesterday. That's more than twenty years gone by in just a snap!


So Happy Birthday to me, dag nammit! I hope this year will be, to use Adam's words, "upper A!" The children in our lives are taking over the world, and they remind us just how fast time goes by.