Celebrating the 'Double Nickel' This Year

The big bithdays in my life, as I remember it, were my 17th, 21st and 40th. Yet, none of those compared to today, when my lovely wife brought me to a local restaurant here in town. Unlike so many other birthdays, 55 feels like a graduation of sorts. My working life has been over for several years now, my marriage is very good, I have no more enemies or even poor relations with anyone in my life, my debts are paid, my children are grown and are prosperous and I have found peace after all these years.

Finding peace is a hard thing to do in this life. There are so many factors to it: financial security, liking where you are and who you are with, liking one's self, your setting and your place in this world. And, that just scratches the surface. Peace is also about reconciling one's past and being ready for the journey ahead as much as saying farewell to the journey behind and having no regrets left about the old days. Well, everyone has regrets of some kind after a lifetime, but people can find peace with it after much introspection and prayer. God readily forgives us. It is us learning how to forgive ourselves that is perhaps the most important thing we each take into old age. For me, it was the hardest lesson to learn and the longest to work through. But, I'm good now. Religious or spiritual people might say that peace comes at the point where someone reconciles their failures, sins, regrets, achievements and wishes with the God of their understanding. I would not argue against this. I am happy about where I am at today. 

It took long enough: years. 

So, today I celebrated my 55th birthday and it feels not like the closing of some chapters of a book, but the opening of new ones. And, I am ready for them. This, in itself, is something I am glad about. 

In some ways, 55 years have flown right by and, in other ways, it has seemed to be a very long time. Like most things, I believe the truth might be somewhere in the middle. 

-- JP