Embracing Age

Time marches on, and once again the earth has orbited the sun on the day I was born.  While I'm not too excited to reach the halfway point of my 60s, as that seems like a real turning point in life to me, it's better than the alternative.  So I decided to make a bigger effort to appreciate the positives of where I am in life rather than the negatives of where I'm not.

Helping me out over the whole weekend were a number of small pleasurable moments as well as a few larger ones.  I thought you might like to share a few of them with me!

Jazz under the blue moon

For 20 years now, our region has held free outdoor summer concerts in various communities all over.  This year, our own village has hosted several interesting ones.  Friday evening, just up the hill from us within walking distance, we were treated to a really nice jazz ensemble and singer. 

One of the unexpected highlights was watching the blue moon rise up behind them.  What a fun prelude to my birthday weekend, even if the phone camera had a hard time capturing it!

Saturday afternoon, there was another small community affair we went to, providing another opportunity to meet and greet other locals.  Then, Sunday morning, my big day, Doc Leo surprised me with a big squirt of whipped cream in my morning coffee.  What a nice way to start the day.

Twins!

When we got to church, several friends in the lobby immediately broke out with the birthday song when I walked in the door.  That's not typical, so it was a big surprise.  Unlike the festivities after church, when birthdays typically get acknowledged.  Except in my case, when in past years everybody except mostly visitors was on vacation. 

The birthday kids with their birthday cake

I happen to share a birthday with a good friend, who is always away on vacation, so we never get to celebrate together.  As their family just happened to be in town for the first time this year, his wife, my good friend Ellie, made us a joint birthday cake.

As if that wasn't fun enough, we got serenaded in a number of languages.  First in English, then in French, then Serbian, then Portuguese; not to be outdone, Mado, holding the cake, broke out in African! 

A heart of love

A floral birthday gift

While we'd been in church, a new friend I've just met left a telephone message, where she completely sang the birthday song before promising a get-together in the near future.

Not only did Ellie make a group cake, she surprised me with my own little personal heart cake, sprinkled with little candy hearts.  I was touched. 

After church, we met up with another group of friends for lunch and a swim in the large community pool.  Before swimming, they presented me with a pretty potted plant.

Alpine Queen & Doc Leo

The birthday girl

A friend who lives fairly near to us has a lovely home in a community residence, which is where we had lunch. 

The setting was so pretty, we took a few pictures of ourselves, as we don't usually have nice pictures for posterity.  

Don't you agree this is just a beautiful Mediterranean view?  And it's authentic!

Afternoon delight

The old, the young, the lazy

We started off the afternoon just relaxing in the shade with some snacks, while some of the lazy of the group reposed on lounge chairs.

An inviting Mediterranean playground

Then we hit the pool.  Isn't it beautiful and inviting?  Just a little different size, style, and setting than our personal one. 

However, ours is just as wet and provides just as much pleasure when it's hot.  (And we are finally starting on a deck for it this month!)

While I hung out on the edge of infinity, a few posers showed off their masculine physiques.

Part of infinity

So macho

Ready, set, go ...

... right into the middle of everybody else

There is a young couple in our church with a little boy just a week younger than our own toddler grandson, so it's always fun to watch his progress and imagine our little guy, who is too far away to follow very often.  Their little tyke had absolutely no problem dealing with this great big body of water.  Nor did the adults playing with him!

So much fun!

Joining the Doc after pushing him in

He seemed to really get a big kick out of pushing the Doc into the water, but then he liked to jump in after that himself. 

It was rather awesome later, when nobody else was in this huge pool, to see this tiny person floating around all by himself.  Definitely no fear.

The proper number of candles

The proper amount of lung power

After our delightful swim, we had lunch.  They didn't know that I have always adored shrimp, so it was really a treat when that was the focus of the meal!

Then they presented me with another birthday cake!  And more song.

A birthday cake cake

So while I wasn't really looking forward to this birthday, my friends did a spectacular job of making it really special anyway.  Isn't that what friends are for?  Even if the majority of them are as young or younger than my own adult children.  However, I do not play a maternal role, we are all equals, and their young families allow me to reminisce my own young family life, now too far in the past.  Then I ended the day with a really nice Skype call with one of my own dear progeny.

What more could anybody want?