32 and lovin' it

I turned 32 on August 1st and I'm pretty darn happy about it. One silly reason is that I love even numbers and I am particularly fond of the number 2. "32" just has this great ring to it and feels like it fits me. So I sang with my family, "Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me, I'm 32 and I'm cu-ute, happy birthday to me." Well, they didn't really sing that part, but I was happy to improvise my own little version all by myself...it was my day after all. I have decided, with great joy, to be 32 for a full year and proudly declare to anyone who asks my age, "Why, I'm 32, don't I look fabulous?" Okay, maybe not the "don't I look fabulous part" (although I mostly do), but I will say my age with gusto and without hesitation.

I had a great morning with my Mom and my sweet little family and then a wonderful, relaxing afternoon with my hubby and was greatly spoiled by a night away together. We sat out on a patio for dinner and then watched a breath-taking sunset over the Rocky Mountains. (It felt a little like God was going all out for my big day - I think He was excited about the 32 thing as well.) Then we meandered through little shops while eating our ice cream. Those who know me know it doesn't get much better than that for me.

I'm really enjoying my 30's so far. Anne Lamott wrote: "Age has given me what I was looking for my entire life - it gave me me. It provided the time and experience and failures and triumphs and friends who helped me step into the shape that had been waiting for me all my life. I fit into me now - mostly." I can feel that I am fitting more into the shape God designed for me. I know I am still on the road to "fitting into me now" but I can feel as I age that I am changing...that I am becoming more myself. I can also sense that I am becoming less aware of myself and more aware of those around me. I think age can do that for us if we let it, if we embrace it and all the experiences life/God gives us as the years tick by. I hope this year that I am so much more aware of those in need around me. That I am a faithful friend, especially to those closest to me. That I love my two daughters and husband well and pour life into them. That I do some great things for the our dear earth (I have already sworn off plastic bags -yeah!) and that I fear less and love more. (I SO should have been a hippie - man, that would have been great.) And all this to say what's so great about age is, as Anne says, "it's not that I think less of myself, but that I think of myself less often. And that feels like heaven to me."