75! A Milestone.

Blowing out the candles on a 75th birthday cake nearly took my breath away.  Not because there were so many candles.  Actually, there was only one.  Thank goodness.  It was simply the awareness of my age coupled with the realization that the years were slipping away all too quickly.  Years that couldn’t be repeated, recaptured, even remembered in some instances.  So why lament 75?  Simply because I don’t want my remaining years to slip by so easily, so “unannounced,” so nondescript.

Each moment of our lives is sacred.  I know that’s not new information.  Each moment brings to us exactly the person or the situation we have been prepared for.  That’s information familiar to you too, no doubt.  There simply aren’t any real mysteries in our lives.  What will be, will be.  Personally, I like the certainty of that.  Sitting here, as a 75 year old woman, shows me that even when the odds of succeeding in life seemed unlikely, I did any way.  And I know why.  My life, like the life of everyone else, was divinely orchestrated.  Let’s take a deep breath and soak that in.

What have you accomplished in your life that you had not imagined you’d do, when you were just starting out?  Take a moment and make a list of those things.  Now see which ones had a very direct, and positive impact on others in your life.  This is not an exercise designed to give you bragging rights, but I do want you to see how valuable you have been to the other travelers you met along the way.

I’ve said it many times but it always bares repeating, you were a very necessary cog in the wheels of many lives you encountered during your journey.  And you will continue to impact others for the rest of your life, and beyond, perhaps.  To clarify, how many of us continue to read the works of great writers who have already passed?  Probably most of you reading this would answer in the affirmative.  For instance, great poetry is turned to for decades, even hundreds of years, following the death of the writer.  The same can be said for great philosophers, great novelists,  great historians.

The age of a body of information doesn’t negate its value.  It’s my hope that my books live on following my death.  The kind of books I write probably makes that a possibility.  Actually, that’s an awesome realization that what I labored over, always a labor of love, in fact, may well live on in the hands of people not even born yet.  That’s a thought worthy of taking a deep breath over.