I’m standing on the doorstep. Behind me is my 60s and through the open door is my seventies. It is crazy to think that I’m this old when I don’t feel like what I think 70 would feel like. I may have mentioned in the past when I was a little girl and my mom turned 40, I asked her what it felt like to be 40. I still remember how she looked at me kind of puzzled and said “It doesn’t feel any different than it did when I was in my thirties.” I didn’t understand that then, but now, I do.

The day I was born, it was the hottest day on record for the State of Missouri, 115 °. I think about what my mom must have gone through on that day. Being in labor is miserable at best but with that kind of heat, it must have been terrible. Mom never talked about that day other than to tell me it was the hottest day on record, so that’s always been my claim to fame, that and French Bastille Day, the anniversary of the Storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789. All I remember hearing about that day is they chopped off a lot of people’s heads that day. Gross.

Tomorrow, my actual birthday is going to be low-key. Having children who work shift work, it’s often hard to coordinate a day when everyone can get together. Two out of four of my children were working so we are celebrating a week from tomorrow.

I’m blessed to have come this far in my life when none of my other family members were given this privilege. I’m in good health with only minor aches and pains and when see many others of my age group and their medical troubles, I realize again how very, very lucky I am. Of course, it has nothing to do with luck, it has all to do with being blessed. I have done nothing to deserve this blessing, but I am very, very thankful for it and my prayer is that I and the Great Hunter continue to have good health.

Happy Birthday to me!