Thoughts on turning 70

Ah, today I am thinking about numbers.....and all that numbers represent. Sums, dates, amounts, addresses, but very important to most of us: age. Ah but, it's just a number, isn't it? Well, yes, but then again, maybe no. Upon thinking and pondering my recent birthday milestone, I was quick to remind myself and others that, well, it's just a number but maybe it is more than that. It certainly represents the yin and the yang of my life; the before and the after; what has been, and what will be, for me, 70 years lived upon this earth, and an unknown number of years to come. It represents other milestones in my life too, like my high school years at Summit Country Day School; my first real love; my college years at Marquette University in freezing Milwaukee, Wisconsin; my two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Tanzania, East Africa (quite warm); meeting and dating my one true love, my husband of 40 years, and our marriage in July, 1969; the birth of our two daughters and all the joyful years they brought to our lives; our eight year "party" in Colorado and then our return to the Midwest; and our happy landing in Normal, Illinois amidst the flatland of lovely farms, and the joys of living in a small Midwest town. In and among the areas and locations of my life are all the wonderful people I have met and the lasting friends I have made. I am abundantly blessed in this area of my life along with my Cincinnati family of six brothers and sisters, cousins, nieces, nephews and now, two wonderful grandchildren. So, no....70 is not just a number. It is the representation of a life lived, so far so good. The morning I turned 70, I woke up and said to my husband, "Well, I made it; the rest is gravy." Or as they say in New Orleans, the rest is "lagniappe-a little extra." I feel abundantly blessed, healthy and am continuing to charge ahead. Who could ask for more?? I love what Falstaff says in Shakespeare's play, Henry IV, Part One,
" If to be old and merry be a sin, then many an old host that I know is damned." I want to think of myself among that group.