A Report from My New Vantage Point on the Hill

Today I am officially 36 years old.
Contrary to what I may have said in the months leading up to this day,
I'm quite happy to be one year older and wiser...
Although, something does feel rather strange to me today.

Yes, today, on my birthday,
there is surely a strange, unfamiliar, comfort around me...
or within me.
I honestly can't decide which it is, but is present....
And it is unmistakably a shifting of sorts.

Now, what I am not talking about
is my lovely vehicle of flesh shifting due to gravity's inescapable effects...
No, that's not what Im getting at, at all.
I mean, sure, I have a few lines and a few sags here and there that I could do without,
but over all I feel good about myself, by body, my life and where I'm headed.

This is a good period of my life. Maybe the best ever.
I feel, in a way, like I'm just getting started on the main course of the big banquet.

Maybe the strange shifting sensation I feel today is a symbolic one.

Maybe it is the sudden awareness of the absolute lack of pressure to figure out who I am.
Or, on the other hand,
maybe I have finally figured out who I am
and the shift is the sudden realization of
to what extent I care about what other people think of me.

Either way, I'd imagine it's a good thing
when one comes to terms with one's personal vision
of who they are,
and who they are not,
and who they strive to be.

I am proud of what I have accomplished so far in my life,
and simultaneously realize there is still so much more I want accomplish...

It's a relief to discover how my vantage point actually improves
with each year,
as I climb the proverbial hill.

And today's magic of 36 has proven that the air is much clearer up here.

With each birthday, things come a little more into focus for me.
My goals and aspirations don't seem as far away.
They seem less like dreams and more like realities.

Actually, from this strange and new vantage point I find myself looking around and counting the gifts I have been given.

The gift of having a wonderful husband.
The gift of a loving family.
The gift of amazing friends...
and especially and the gift of time,
without which I would have none of the above.

So yeah, 36 isn't so bad.
In fact.....perhaps, 36 is a gift in itself.

Kind of wonderful, don't you think?