Happy Birthday!

I am approaching a milestone birthday, turning 60 in just a few days.  I have spent the last couple weeks planning and reflecting and not posting on this blog.  I wanted to really be ready for the next decade of my life.  Being in my 60s.  Goodness.

I realize some of you are already there and may even think, c’mon, get on with it, but as I have explained in the past, I use my birthday for resolutions rather than New Year.  I take it as kind of a big deal.  More than a New Year, a birthday says a lot about you, so I think it is a better time to reflect and resolve.  I mean, everyone is having a New Year, but your birthday is you, right?

There you go.  Resolve.  Turning 60 to me is a resolution all it’s own.  Since there are different definitions of the verb resolve, I considered both.   Resolve 1.  Settle or find a solution to a problem, dispute or contentious matter.  Resolve 2. Decide firmly on a course of action.  

Anyway, I have a list of things to resolve, short list, but things are there and I have a list of things to resolve.  When making New Year’s resolutions, I think many of us leave out the first resolve ~ to settle or find a solution.  Some years, maybe we don’t have anything that would fall in to that category.  I won’t lie ~ I have a couple “contentious matters” to resolve, and I will.  

I want a clean slate going in to my sixties.  I don’t like contentious matters any more than the next guy but I also don’t like stewing.  I don’t want to stew, I don’t want you to stew, I don’t want it to stew.   Sometimes, contentious matters need to be left alone and forgotten and if that is best, I promise to myself that I will move on, I will resolve, instead of letting something get my goat or be stuck in my craw.  If it is a situation that needs personal attention, well, even though it might make me uncomfortable for the moment, I will resolve it.  

I resolve to look at situations with a more positive lens.  I know there are times when I am too negative, when I view my situations from the negative position.  I know when I am in it, I hear myself and I resolve to move out of that stance.  Going in to my sixties, I just don’t want to be there.  Have you ever met a bitter, cranky, negative, gloomy gus in their sixties? Yes, me, too and I will not be them.  I will not.
Hubs and I had a long talk the other evening, sitting on our swing, watching the lake go to sleep.  I said, without announcing it as a resolution, I want to take more pleasure, more joy out of each day.   Last year, I purchased a little crafty sign at a friend’s store that says, simply, “Take Joy”.  I resolve to take more joy out of life, more joy out of the day. This is a very personal goal for me, and it was somewhat difficult to speak about it to someone else, but saying things out loud, sharing them with someone you trust, is a good first step to resolution.  Once it is from your heart and has passed your lips, well, it is more real.  My big resolution as I turn 60 is to take joy.

Finally, along with taking joy, I resolve to give joy.  To make your day brighter if I can, to lighten your burden, to share with you our very good, very blessed life.  I will be more joyful for those I love, for those I know, for those I meet.  I will be a more joyful person for you. 

To settle a problem or two, to move out of the negative, to take joy and to give joy.  Happy 60 to me.