Happy 45th birthday to me! Shall I go in the bathroom and cry my eyes out? It\u2019s my birthday, and I\u2019ll cry if I want to. Shall I go sky diving or how about a tattoo? Buy a new sportscar? Well for me it would be a Jeep, a royal blue one, with a lift kit, and off-road package. Should I just plain ignore the day like it isn\u2019t even happening? Denial will work, right? I can be 29 till I die. Well, maybe 39 is slightly more believable.<\/p>\n
Actually, none of those reactions to my birthday are for me. Some may be in my future but not because I am having a hard time dealing with the extra candle on my cake. I love to celebrate birthdays even when they\u2019re mine. None of the \u201cbig ones\u201d have even hit me hard\u2026yet. Maybe my tune will change in five years when I\u2019m half a century old.<\/p>\n
Perspective\u2026 that\u2019s what matters. Shall I think of myself as half a century old or shall I think of myself as having 50 years of experience? I\u2019m getting ahead of myself\u2026 Let\u2019s stick to 45 for now.<\/p>\n
How I think about birthdays has been greatly affected by rockstar mother. My mom is 18 \u00be years old. As a leap year baby, she gets a birthday once every four years. I still remember celebrating my mom\u2019s sweet sixteen. Each of her three grandchildren at the time wore t-shirts that said, \u201cMy Grandma is 16.\u201d \u00a0FYI, she still isn\u2019t legal to drink.<\/p>\n
Thinking of herself as 16, 17, 18 has kept my mom young \u2013 young at heart, mind, and even body. Age truly is just a number in her mind. If she focused on the number \u2013 the real number \u2013 75 \u2013 and how the number increases even faster than the years seem to pass – she may not attempt half the things she does.<\/p>\n
Next month my mom is blessed with an actual birthday. Next month she will also be testing for her purple belt in taekwondo. That is the SEVENTH belt in our martial arts school\u2019s belt system. Yes, my almost 76-year-old mother will be sparring (fighting) people, breaking\u00a0boards with her bare hands and feet, performing forms and other self-defense moves, taking people to the ground (probably me), demonstrating her knowledge of Korean words, and\u00a0maybe even throwing in a somersault or two to earn her next belt. If my mom focused on her increasing age and the things she can\u2019t do anymore, her life would look a lot different. She wouldn\u2019t be wearing a martial arts belt of any color let alone purple.<\/p>\n
My mom took a leap of faith and started taekwondo at age 74. I was 40 when I first put on a white belt. It\u2019s never too late to try something new no matter your age, gender, shape, size, etc. It\u2019s never too late to start tackling a dream that\u2019s been on your heart for years or even a minute. Do something TODAY that fuels your fire or better yet do something today that scares you half to death. Adventure awaits!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Happy 45th birthday to me! Shall I go in the bathroom and cry my eyes out? It\u2019s my birthday, and I\u2019ll cry if I want to. Shall I go sky…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n