30th Birthday blog – February 8, 2019

Such a big birthday, 30 is…ok, fine it is really my 40^th….sheesh, would you believe 50^th?  Yes, I turned 50 and promptly had a nervous issue with where I should be by now and frankly, not wanting to be 50 years old at all.

Have I done enough science, enough fun things, enough travel, enough, enough, enough…  After some belly aching for a month or so, my thoughts focused on the tree on the right, which is dead, twisted and broken.

Sigh, but really, if you reframe it, that tree on the right has seen a great deal, traveled, wised up, and truly enjoyed life.  It is also home to two families of woodpeckers.   Although I tried to extend the simile to myself, I couldn’t think of anything pecker-ish or even pecker adjacent about myself.  My thoughts extended to the fact that I have done life in kinda the reverse order, seeing the world from the seat of a bicycle, being an activist, an entrepreneur; learning to dance latin, ballroom, swing & blues; being a gardener, truck deliverer, rocket scientist, geneticist, and chemist.

Also, when I FINALLY got hitched five years ago, the server decided that I was the only one too young to have an alcoholic drink, knocking roughly 25 years off my actual age.  So, why not just reframe, but readjust?  I am now the tree on the left as well as the right, young, tall, strong, and ready for more life!