So far, it's a piece of cake~

Hello dear friends and family and greetings from the Pacific side of the Continental Divide on this good October 26th evening.  It's been a great day to have a birthday, a fine day in life to turn 58 years old, and as I sit here tonight at home in Montrose, Colorado I feel blessed a thousand fold.  May your day have been as good as mine was.  You deserve it :)

I wasn't sure how I would feel on this, my first birthday away from home in Kansas.  I wondered if I would make it without crying, being homesick, or anything else.  But you know, I did pretty good and actually this has been the best day I've had here since I moved to Colorado, from start to finish!  I think that's a good sign, don't you? How wonderful it was to hear from so many friends this day and I give you thanks, all of you, for your kindness to me.  The miles didn't seem so many for some reason and what a gift this thing called "modern technology" is for us all.  I'm grateful for your friendship and love, concern and support.

So many good things happened today to make this particular birthday one to remember. I received many gifts of "the heart" and those my friends are the best kind to get. There's no aisle in Wal Mart or any of those high dollar, fancy shmansy stores that has gifts of the heart on its shelves.  They have always been my favorite kind.  One special one came to me all the way from Hutchinson, Kansas and the giver of the gift was a young man named Michael Wilde, a former student of mine from the days of Haven Grade School.   He sent me a message on Facebook, asking what my address in Hutch had been.  I thought it was rather unusual but I didn't think all that much further about it.  Just a few minutes later, I found out his reason for asking and it brought tears of joy to the face of this old school teacher.  Michael had taken the photo, shown below:

Just for my birthday, he had found my house in Hutchinson and stopped by there today to take a photo of it for me so I wouldn't be so homesick.  My heart smiled when I saw it and "home" seemed so close to me that I could almost reach out and touch it.  Michael, dear boy (ok, ok now a grown man) your old teacher will always remember you and love you for what you did this day for me.  God bless you always~Your heart is good and kind.

Night time has fallen in our part of the world, now over an hour ago.  The evening is a quiet one and believe it or not, Mike and I are sitting here watching "Finding Nemo" and eating popcorn. Yep, I know that sounds pretty exciting, doesn't it?  We live a pretty simple life and  I guess all in all, that's not such a bad thing.  When I lay my head on the pillow tonight, it will be in gratitude for a good life, now 58 years in all.  I miss you my friends and family but rest assured I am ok and slowly but surely adjusting to life in this place on the "other" side of the big hill :)

This morning as Mike and I were driving to breakfast, I heard the most beautiful song on the radio.  It was new to me (surprise, surprise because my entire repertoire of music knowledge comes from the '70s) and I quickly "Googled" some of the lyrics in order to find out who was singing it.  Through the magic of the technological world we now live in, I found out in short order.  It's a beautiful song by an English group called "Passenger" and I swear it almost has a Celtic sound to it.  I was particularly struck by one of the verses that said, "You only hate the road when you're missing home."  How true it is that we take for granted so many things. May we all be ever aware of the fragility of life and to live each day as if it were the last one we would ever have.  Love you guys, one and all.  Oh, and by the way~58?  It's a piece of cake, well so far :)

Actually 58 feels a whole lot like 57 did~I'm pretty sure it's all in your perspective friends, all in your perspective.  Sitting here tonight at home in south western Colorado, in fulfilment of this special part of the "plan".

Tried to attach the video to that beautiful song below.  Hopefully it will open for you.  Worth listening to, at least in my thoughts.