Privilege Blog

Thank You Everyone, Or, Saturday Morning at 9:36am

up-up-and-away

Turned 60. Up, up, and away. Am still celebrating, albeit with feet firmly par terre.

I’m not one to say it’s just a number, a birthday of this moment and magnitude. Milestones mark passages, even if we don’t know quite where we’re going. My goal is to merit the journey.

Thank you all so much for the birthday wishes yesterday, and for reading whenever. Your presence matters. As always, have a wonderful weekend.

25 Responses

  1. I agree that sixty matters. It is a real milestone. I think it’s an age that almost forces us to look back and reflect. I’m 64 now and have noticed that this decade is different–but not in a bad way. I think reaching 60 made me very appreciative of everything that has come before. My wish for you is many more birthdays to come and health, wealth, and happiness in the next year and beyond.

  2. As another 64 year old, I echo everything Susan D has to say. Happiest of birthdays and the decade to come…xo

  3. Wishing you health, happiness, and joy on your B-day and the coming year. The best is yet to come.

  5. I wish you, above all else, health, happiness and many more years. I agree with Susan that this is a decade that makes you appreciate “everything that has come before.”

  6. I’d echo what Susan D. says. For me, there’s something oddly tangible, corporeal, about the number 60 — there’s an almost atavistic recognition of what it means (although I suppose there wasn’t much reaching of 60 in our early biological/evolutionary history!). The wingéd chariot becomes more audible, but that has the potential to make our days richer. Stretches of decades telescope into sharp, even epiphanic, perceptions, and then assume their grand narrative span again. It’s a roller-coaster ride, I tell you! I know you’re up for it! Happy post-birthday basking… xoxo

  8. Thank you for not deciding to change Lisa and embrace the societal persona of 60…All too frequently women going into a new decade allow other sources to decide who they might be…I am glad you are going to be yourself..(i.e.Sea tee…)
    And when you look in the mirror, you will see the same trusting eyes of Lisa at various ages and stages…Give her a hug…She’ll be with you for a longtime to come…

  12. Happy Birthday! It was lovely to talk with you, albeit briefly, on your birthday. I knew it was your milestone 60th birthday, but I forgot to mention that when I was actually speaking to you. One of the things I love most about American Indian culture is its sincere reverence for the advantages, richness, and wisdom that come with age. My dad celebrated his birthday with more joy than anyone else I’ve known. We had a family party each year on his birthday; my mother cooked, we set the table with the linen cloth and the best china. We talked and we laughed. It is one of my most treasured family memories. I didn’t notice the years at all (really, at all, I found it odd when people would mention they were upset at 30, 40, 50, whatever age), maybe courtesy of my dad, I’m not sure, until my husband decided he no longer wished to be married. Maybe because of my Catholic childhood, I thought it was as if I’d been suddenly sent out of the Garden of Eden and noticed instead of my nakedness that I had an age. My former relationship to age has not returned, but I have a new, and I think better, relationship to age: I’m aware I have one, I’m grateful for my body doing its best, I know life has a beginning, middle, and end, and I wish to use my time well. Yesterday I spent the day with a good friend helping her choose a dress for a wedding she will be attending on the East Coast in November. After, she went on to her evening’s plans, I bought, The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World, at Books, Inc. in Town & Country Village. Do you know of it? It’s the new book about the meeting between the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu in Dharamsala in 2015 written with Douglas Abrams. The book describes their talks about feeling joy in a world filed with suffering, and their celebration of the Dalai Lama’s 80th birthday. The book came to my attention in a Time Magazine review I read a week ago during a particularly difficult time in relationship to my mother’s death a year ago on 28 August. The line in the review that stood out for me personally was, “The secret? Not thinking too much about yourself.” I realized that was me, and I wanted to let go of that, though I also acknowledge understanding a complex grief does require a degree of self-thought. It is where one chooses to go with it, including a letting go that allows a separation, ascending, release, in the manner of those hot air balloons in your photograph. We choose our path. Even in the most difficult circumstances, in the end we choose our path. Sometimes I forget that. I thought of you, the friend I am staying with (birthday, 27 September), and my older brother (birthday, 2 October) when I read in the introductory chapter of the book, “Every day is a new opportunity to begin again. Every day is your birthday.” I do believe that. We humans age in only one direction, which means we must embrace impermanence and live well in each moment simultaneously. I wish you joy at this significant milestone. You wear it very well. xo.

  14. Oh I’m wishing you a very Happy Birthday and fulfilling year! Everyone has left such thoughtful messages. I say read them and have a glass of champagne!

  17. Welcome to the wonderful world of Elder Babe! It’s a grand thing. I consider this to be more or less the last quarter of my life, so I take 60 very seriously. I’m doing a sort of reevaluation of where I am now and where I want to take the rest of life remaining to me. I’d like to tidy up any loose ends, say whatever it is I have to say to people, forgive others and -most of all – forgive myself for poor choices made in my past. And I want to have fun. I really really want to have fun.

  18. Hello Lisa
    Wishing you belated birthday wishes. I shall continue to enjoy your wonderful blog and hope I look as good as you do when my sixth arrives in the near future.

  23. SO< IT IS THE FIRST of OCTOBER!!
    I will NEVER FORGET…………..as that is ONE SPECIAL DAY for me TOO!
    From instagram I see you were in a GOOD SPOT!
    THE 60's will be FULL of ADVENTURE and GOOD HEALTH!
    I hope to follow in your footsteps!
    XX

  24. Happy Birthday, Lisa. Speaking from the lofty height of sixty plus five months…it’s not so bad. Kind of freeing, actually. 60 has much more gravitas than 59… I think:) After stressing and chewing and wringing my hands over the change of decade… when the time came… I shook myself and said, “Well, Burpee. You’re sixty. This is your body, and your face…and your hair (b/c I’d been stressing about my hair…natch)…and your life… better just get on with things.” Felt fabulous!

    Been catching up with several posts today because we’ve been off-line on a camping trip. Great flowers. Great, great LBD that you wore on your birthday. Nice to be back in civilization.

Comments are closed.

© 2023 Lisa Carnochan | Sitemap | Privacy Policy | Contact

Instagram