Can you tell I’m smiling?

So here we go – another birthday. In times of uncertainty there’s a lot we can still count on. The sun still rises every day, the tides still ebb and flow, the seasons still change and as you pass another year you can definitely count on another birthday rolling on in with it.

But here’s the thing. I’m liking getting older. Every day is a new day to start over and every day I find something fascinating to gawk at and enjoy and appreciate. And this, despite life’s upheavals and changes of direction which I have experienced in spades in recent times.

I found my own life changing direction this past year, or more accurately the past 21 months, when my dear friend Annette received a cancer diagnosis one day and a long (and at the same time short) thirteen months later passed away, leaving all who loved her changed forever. My own journey alongside during that time (and beyond) was, and continues to be, transformational. I have changed in many, many ways and the experience has been extraordinary. I look at life completely differently.

I know that there is nothing at all to fear from death but with this aging to 6ty7 body one of my areas of focus has become health. No surprise there. Once upon a time we were young and healthy and thought we’d live forever. Now notice the conversations as we boomers compare our aches and pains and this’s and that’s – the “organ recitals”.

In many ways I am healthier than ever. I continue my Pilates movement practice of a dozen years which keeps me upright and I walk outside in nature daily which keeps me sane, I now have a meditation practice, the benefits of which wouldn’t fit into this paragraph, and over a year ago, after a deep dive into nutrition research, I transitioned to a whole foods plant based diet and found the results to be nothing short of amazing. All the usual health markers – cholesterol, blood pressure and so on improved within only a matter of weeks and continued to do so significantly over the past year. Even more astonishing, for this Type 1 diabetic of 30 years, blood sugar control is the best it has ever been in all those years by far. You can never know all that’s going on under the hood or what is to come, but as I said to my doctor when we were talking about the remarkable results I had achieved with diet change, “Whatever is going to come my way, at least I’ll be facing it knowing that I am in the best possible health that is in my power to achieve”. Which is the best I can do.

So. Any organ recital complaints at all? Well, my dentist is getting rich off of me and my eyesight is slowly but surely getting worse.

There’s also the issue of the mirror. What are all those lines, and crevasses and bumps doing in that mirror?

Well, that’s what bad eyesight is for!

Happy birthday day to me – and to all of you, my family and friends. Bring it on. My birthday wish to all – may you find peace today and all days in these times of uncertainty.

Here’s what Seven More Than Sixty looks like.

Happy. In my happy place.