How did that happen?

On the morning of my 61st birthday, I looked into my mirrored reflection and wished myself a birthday greeting. I thought, “Wow, 61. How did that happen?” 

And “the whisper” from God answered exactly how it happened: 

It happened with 61 years of unyielding love and support from my solid parents … parents who did the “til death do you part” thing instead of divorce … parents who taught me morals and faith and kindness and compassion … right from wrong and character … parents who provided my three siblings and me with an incredibly happy childhood because they wanted it to be better than theirs.  

It happened with 61 years of laughter … there has been a load of that … from the first time I laughed as a bambina … through childhood delights … then silly teens … into young adulthood … and I still laugh a great deal now. Raised under a silly and playful father, I learned how important and wonderful is laughter.  

It happened with 61 years of learning … both in educational settings and life’s classroom … and I am not finished. We continue to grow and learn continuously (at least we should) until the day we die. I have heard wisdom and have been educated from those older, younger and my same age, sometimes strangers, and I hope I help to inspire and teach them in return. 

It happened with 61 years of protection … under the watchful eyes of God’s guardian angels … and wow, did I keep them busy as a fearless little girl and a reckless college student! Sometimes I marvel that I am still alive to “tell the tales” after doing some dumb and risky things. It’s all in the adventure, I suppose! (Yet truly, I say a huge thanks to my guardian angels who did their job well.) 

It happened with 61 years of exploration … traveling, trying new activities, asking, discovering, journeying through negative and positive experiences, working a plethora of diversified jobs, using an assortment of skills, planning adventures, and investigating whatever spiked my curiosity.  

It happened with 61 years of faith … a Catholic upbringing, eight years of Catholic school influenced by nuns and priests, thousands of Masses, countless hours of praying, believing, trusting. Associating with other like-minded faith-filled people, writing on faith, belonging to parishes, volunteering to do God’s work, donating to the disadvantaged, participating in service projects, giving of myself. 

It happened with 61 years of passion … feeling and living and believing in what was most significant to me at each age … providing me with a voice … tapping into the soulful parts which centered and balanced my being, provided peace and happiness … helping me to know who I am and how I am wired … and never apologizing for it.  

It happened with 61 years of giving and receiving love … to/from grandparents, parents, two sisters, a brother, relatives, my kids, friends, coworkers, neighbors, acquaintances, community. I hope in heaven we are allowed to sit and watch a playback movie of all the people who have ever passed through our days to love us, some permanent, some temporary, so we can recall and relive the immense amounts of love with which God has blessed us. Many, not all, of us have experienced parenthood, and we have learned that bond is one of the most utmost teachers of love God can provide.  

And lastly, reaching sixty plus one happened with years of gratitude … counting the blessings too numerous to count (way, way more than sixty-one) … learning about life’s more imperative priorities … waking up thanking God (“Feet on the floor, gratitude galore”) … reflecting … focusing on the higher good … aware of decent thanksgiving and exactly from where the good originates. 

This is life: parental love, laughter, learning, protection, exploration, faith, passion, loving, and gratitude. Does life merely happen or do we compose it? God’s hand in it, yet free will surrounding it. This is what we create. This is how we get through it. This is how we face yet another birthday. 

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