Today is my 57th birthday. I'm as happy as a clam at high tide to be alive and well.
I decided to post pictures of myself over the last couple of years so I have a place to come back to look at my happy face when I have one those rare dark days. I'd love to tell you why I have gray days but it will take a book to tell it all. It's coming ... the book.Most people don't know I am adopted. It isn't that I hide that fact, it's just that it doesn't really come up in conversation. Last week, for some reason it did come up in conversation and I shared a tiny bit of my story with someone. It dawned on me that a lot of it (my life story) I have not yet written down. I need to get to it before another year goes by that steals my memory.
These photos are from the last 14 years (except the 3D glasses pic) of my very happy life. I typically am on the other side of a camera but as I was looking through my images I noted every single photo of me is a happy one. That's a great chapter in my story right there.
I haven't always been this way. I'm very much like the Skin Horse in the Velveteen Rabbit.
“Real isn't how you are made,' said the Skin Horse. 'It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.'
'Does it hurt?' asked the Rabbit.
'Sometimes,' said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. 'When you are Real you don't mind being hurt.'
'Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,' he asked, 'or bit by bit?'
'It doesn't happen all at once,' said the Skin Horse. 'You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand.”
Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit
Happy (late) birthday! I love the pictures, and what you shared from the Velveteen Rabbit. Wonderful.
ReplyDeleteSometimes when I look in the mirror and see additional gray hair or another wrinkle, I remind myself, "I earned those!"
Susan! I'm sorry! I missed your birthday. I missed my sisters's, and nieces's, and Lord only know who else I forgot. I promise to make amends. Somehow. As soon as I can.
ReplyDeleteThe Velveteen Rabbit is a story I cherish. The administrator at Children's Hospital in Colorado gave me a copy when Erin and I were being prepared for her possible death. She had a brain tumor and there was an awful incident that almost broke me. The wonderful woman who reached out to me left soon after she gave me the book. She quit to take care of her husband, who was diagnosed with cancer. She affirmed my belief in angels. They are messengers of light, and that's what she was.
It's time to buy another copy of the book.
Happy, happy, happy birthday!
That's an awesome chronicle.
The best thing of all is that you are BACK!!!! This makes me so happy, you have no idea! I'll have another birthday hopefully. I decided to celebrate it this year with photos gathered here really for my son's sake. I am not sure what will happen to all the digital photos we take nowadays ... where will they go? Anyway, I will be writing you soon to catch you up!
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