Life's a Stitch

What I learned from my 60th birthday

1. C pointed out that our age difference gets smaller as we get older. M, perhaps this is one of the people from which you inherited the math genes? When he was  50 our age was 8% different. When he turns 100 there will only be a 4% difference. Someone has to think about these things. 

2. It can be called a birthday party, or as my cousin named it, "An Aging Event." And one of my co-workers told me that after this one, you get to celebrate these aging events every five years. Oh goody.

3. In this family we all carry the creative gene. If you follow Lifesastitch you all know B's talents in the entertainment world, C's woodworking, and my knitting and watercolour painting. But consider the work of the women in the family who attended a silversmithing class during the Aging Event weekend:

M's presentation of a gift from the three hatchlings, a semi-precious gemstone each placed with feathers inside a drained, sealed and painted egg, nested in copper wire:

The very special milestone gift, concept by my daughter M, design by C, and executed by a local jeweler:

E's time and effort in putting together a video slide show that demonstrates I have influenced many people with my taste for decent red wine (thank you C), geocaching (thank you Greg), and knitting (thank you Mom). Oh, the reference to the banana foot, which I admit to be unique, is the fact that my foot took on a new shape after nine weeks in a cast with two bones that refused to knit, so to speak. Really, having a limited choice in shoes is, as Blogless Marsha and I say, a first world problem:

Thank you to the 60 people who contributed those 60 birthday wishes, which seriously brought tears to my 60-year-old eyes.

Time is "March"ing on...

According to recent stats, in Canada on the average, you get eight of these. If you reside south of the 49th parallel, you'll average seven. I'm about to have my sixth. I'm talking about the big birthdays that end in zero. They occur every ten years, but over time seem to come faster and more furiously.

The impending event has given me pause to think. I don't feel markedly different than I did on the fifth occasion, but I've pinpointed the occasional feeling of sadness that overcomes me. On my 50th, most of life was behind me, as it is on my 60th. The difference, however, is that this time I'm doing it without a number of significant others. My mother, mother-in-law, two good friends, a dear cousin-in-law, my dog...I guess that's the challenge of getting on, surviving and growing from life's losses and looking forward to better times. 

There are different schools of thought on aging. Some say you die how you've lived, so to back up a step that probably means you age in the same style as you've lived to date. So if you tend toward the miserable and mean you'll probably stay that way right to the very end. I work with seniors and we see all kinds. Anna Quindlen, in her memoir Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake, cites  a poll of 340,000 respondents that shows, after the age of 50, we get happier with age and that stress, anger and sadness all decline the older we get. I'm in on that theory.

So, on the Ides of March I'll be celebrating my 6th BIG Birthday that ends in a zero. I got a present from Scotiabank. You know, I've never been big on presents at birthday gatherings, but this year I'm going to acccept some to ease the pain. The bank reminded me that I am turning 60 (not that I needed reminding and oh, to see it in writing) and I can now enjoy my new senior life and the benefits of their seniors' discount. I'm hoping to enjoy much more than that $1 per month. And we started last night by taking a trip to the airport to pick up a surprise birthday "package:"

 

Excuses, excuses...

I almost have an actual knitting picture, just waiting for the person who took it to send it. So you get painting. The second in the spider web series:

 I'm not thrilled with spider webs in real life but they sure are fun to paint.

The photo of the covered bridge painting from my last post has been replaced with the finished product. Painting is like knitting for me,with several projects always on the go.