A Special New Year - 2007

When I woke up and looked outside this morning, my world was pretty much the same. This world that we all share had a birthday yesterday though, and I am big on celebrating birthdays. There are so many opportunities in the ritual of celebration; giving thanks for blessings present and past, sharing with family and friends, reminescing about the past, planning for the future, thinking about how you can affect change or achieve dreams. I think of these celebrations as being a lot like bookmarks for your life...marking your place in life, but serving the higher purpose of moving you forward toward another rewarding chapter.

2007 is special for me because I will turn 60 this year. What an awsome number! I was born in March of 1947, an early baby boomer. So I am among the first of this classified generation to see retirement, maybe one of the last who will receive at least some Social Security benefits, maybe. I remember listening to comics being read on the radio as a small child, watching Eisenhower's innaugaration on our first TV with my parents when I was about 5, being scared of the cold war politics and chaos in the Bay of Pigs in Jr. High, getting a transistor radio (the big thing) for Christmas, watching in horror as John F. Kennedy was shot and crying in sympathy when his brother Bobby met the same end. I experienced a turn to cynicism in my political views during the Viet Nam war, confirmed by Watergate and never fully repaired by succeeding presidents.

I gave up my bra, wore my hair long, grew a garden and ate a lot of brown rice in the late 60's and early 70's. I experimented in my religious convictions, leaned toward buddhism for many years and found my way back to the arms of the one and only Savior, Jesus Christ. I moved through generations of music, through the radio and a small phonograph that played 45's (anyone remember those?), a piano my parents made payments on for at least 10 years, and a progression of hi-fi, radio and stereo equipment that would fill a room if I still had all of it. My first 45's were Gene Autry singing cowboy songs, then Fats Domino belting out Blueberry Hill and the progression never ended. I now have a collection of about 1000 CD's and listen constantly to Rhapsody on my computer.

I watched intently as Armstrong, Young and Aldren sent video back from the moon. The NASA site is still one of my favorites for video...there is such perspective on the fragility of life and our small part in it when you view it from space, but I'm not beyond enjoying a laugh on UTube. I've graduated from Roy Rogers and Perry Mason on television to CSI, Forensic Files and a constant perusing of CNN and MSNBC on TV and the internet. I've learned to block commercial content by taping and watching later. I own a cell phone and a PDA with GPS and can counterspeak in corporate acronyms when necessary. My ancillary hard drive is bigger than the one in my CPU. I still don't know Jack about how we get in or out of the messes we are in, like Iraq, which will in my humble opinion never be "solved" by our current strategy. Also, I think if you shoot at each other, the word for it is war. Refinements are an insult to those who have to endure the process.

I graduated through the steps of current technology starting with an antiquated Remington typewriter (even then), graduated to electric models, add punch tape technology for bookkeeping, mag card and IBM punch card feeds, bookkeeping machines the size of a small room, huge roomsized mainframe computers , personal computers with no more memory than the dashboard in your car and now the evolution of the internet and almost instant access to anything you want anytime you want it. I suffered through DOS queries and calling people up on the phone to find out why the internet didn't work. I survived all of these little steps in life and lived through the loss of my first husband when I was 23, a divorce when I was 38, the loss of my dear younger brother Jack to AIDS when I was 45...he was 35, the passing of both of my parents at ages too young to be taken, and too many personal trials to fit this space.

I also gained the world I live in now, which would not have been possible without the past. I raised four beautiful children who are the core of my heart and mean everything to me. I now have 5 grandchilren and 3 step-grandchildren. I've remarried to a wonderful husband that I met on the internet in 1995 and married in 1996. Our 11th anniversary will be April 27, 2007. We were a rarity (the way we met) at the time and now you hear of internet romances daily. I like to think of us as pioneers in that way, instead of dinosaurs. Love lives on though and I am thankful everyday for him and my family. I am happy in my life except for things that I can not change and I have learned to live with those in the best way possible, day to day.

Fortunate is a word that does not fully describe how I feel at this juncture in my life. I am constantly aware not only of my own blessings, but of the roots and circumstances I came from and the knowledge that there are countless numbers of people who still have no opportunity for the privileges I enjoy or the simple basics that sustain life. This is not a problem I can solve individually, but I believe in Mother Theresa's words "If you can't feed many, feed one." With that in mind, I do what I can to help one day at a time. I also believe in the responsibility of stewardship for the gifts and accomplishments that are a part of our lives. This year, I will write more about stewardship and appreciation and about paying attention to this moment, which can never be recovered once it is past.

With that thought I will close for today, so that I can make the best use of THIS moment and get ready for a dentist appointment.

God bless and keep you throughout the new year!

Paula