On turning 60 -- the report so far

Yikes. How did it happen? The usual way, I guess: by living one day at a time. Whatever the process, here I am, 60 years old today. Like a good Leo, I am talking about it. Like a proper Leo in clown mode, I am mugging for my early morning birthday photo:



What am I doing to celebrate my natal day? Progress so far:

Got up at 4:30 for my usual coffee and journal time. Tried to think of some big goals for the year, and/or for my 60's in general. Decided on just two.

1. My current favorite journal notebooks are from France: Clairefontaine notebooks with lovely smooth paper and rather wide margins. From now on I'm going to go outside the margin lines in my journal notebook, so as to waste less paper and just live larger. Woohoo!

2. I'm going to cultivate more joy and gratitude, every moment I can. A lot more enjoyable than gloom, fear and pessimism, and better for the heart and brain.

And look -- so far it is already working! First my sweetheart, newly returned from the Oregon Bike Ride, got up and made our morning juice. He does this every morning without fail, but I am too lazy to make juice when he is gone, so the birthday juice is tasting especially sweet. Now he is cleaning the oven and soon he will vacuum the house for this afternoon.

Friends and family members, near and far, have phoned to sing or say 'happy birthday', and my near-twin friend Barb (born 8 days before me) called to give me the Field Report on the First Week of Being 60. She told me to look out for tired legs, the first week (she was also on the bike tour). Perhaps I should add a #3 -- 'get plenty of rest.'? It's always good to get these tips from older, wiser friends.

There's a party of sorts planned for this afternoon, though it's nothing more than my usual Birthenalia: food, conversation and lots of DIY live music. Musician friends bring their instruments and music and we all take turns bashing away at piano duets and assorted chamber music.

I've gone really wild this year and have asked a chef/friend to make most of the food, so my only culinary jobs this year are making the beverages (tea and watermelon agua fresca) and my infamous chocolate bread with vanilla butter. Here is the chocolate bread so far:



The menu also calls for sliced tomatoes with fresh mozzarella, so I am heading out to the garden to harvest some of my bounteous tomato crop. More on that next week.