The Face Of Sixty-One

Today is my birthday. I'm sixty-one years old today. Sometimes I still feel just like I did when I was a young child, at play, eager and learning something new every day; sometimes I still feel like I did when I was a teenager, carefree and experiencing those first innocent tastes of what adulthood and a life of responsibility would bring; sometimes I'm still the young bride who believed she would forever be with the love of her life or the young mother, who learned quickly that there were lives far more important than her own; sometimes I still feel like that woman in early middle-age, struggling with growing children, a loss of love, trying to balance family and a demanding job and the unfairness of the world; sometimes I actually feel my own age, appreciative with thankfully only a few aches and pains and more thankfully only a handful of regrets; sometimes **gasp** I feel even older, bent and tired when I let the aches and pains and regrets get to me! The only thing that surprises me anymore is how quickly time seems to move and just how inhumane human beings can actually be towards one another. But those are topics for another day.

Today, I am posting a picture of me. Okay it's not really the face of sixty-one as it was taken almost three years ago... but I really haven't changed that much in less than three years and I don't have a more recent photo that was professionally taken. I will admit that it helps to know your way around Paint Shop Pro (or Photoshop if that is your graphic weapon of choice). A little gaussian blur blend layer works for most portraits. This photo was done by Olan Mills for our church directory so it needed only a slight blur. I used it with a scrap tutorial that came through one of my groups. I seldom, if ever, use photos of me to do these things with and decided that I would post this for my birthday when it came around.

So here I am, looking life square in the eyes!




Tomorrow is my granddaughter Emily's birthday. She will be 14. I'm going to their house in Bossier City for a combined birthday celebration and Easter dinner and to make Emily a chocolate pie (yes, from scratch, the one from my good old standby Betty Crocker cookbook) with meringue piled as high as we make it! My son John will be there too. My daughter and granddaughters in Florida will call. How I wish they could be there in person too. I hate the distance that separates us, but learned after moving away from my family and hometown years ago, that distance doesn't change how much you love one another only how often you get to see each other.

What advice do I have to offer after sixty-one years? Just to look life square in the eyes and to take each day as it comes. I really wish I was better at that!