Today, I turn 50! It’s my semi-centenary and a time to look back … and look ahead …

at 21, I was the last of my group to become a full-fledged, card-carrying adult … so we spent the weekend away from our senior-year books and went horseback-riding, dining and the 1980s version of “clubbing”.

at 25, I was working in Washington, D.C. … blocks away from the White House … steeped to the gills in international trade and quickly becoming disenchanted with the world of politics

at 30, I was married to a high school math teacher/football coach with two kids and climbing the corporate-ladder at Delta Air Lines (having secured an MBA in the mean-time). Eight months later, I would be a widow with two kids (3 and 1) and still rising up those rungs at Delta

at 40, I remarried, a middle-school science teacher, with two more kids (and another soon on the way) and living the life of a student-family in a small village in Austria. I can still taste the fresh horseradish grated over the blood pudding at the Johannes Stuberl.

… and now, here I sit at 50 — married, with three kids still home and loving living large in a rural county in Virginia. I am spending the weekend away from my dh and boys (but with my Kit as my able assistant), doing my favorite thing: talking about knitting and fiber. I have started to generate income from this life-long passion for knitting … while keeping up my techy side with the latest gadgets and social networks (have I told you how very much I love Ravelry??? … and find Facebook and Google+ quite entertaining)

and I’m mulling over where I’ll be

… 10 years from now at 60 …. (my youngest will just be heading off into adulthood!)
… 20 years from now at 70 …. (enjoying life with my dh … who surely will be retired from teaching by then)
… 30 years from now at 80 …. ?????

God has been so good to me … always there, granting me the good times and holding me up through the bad times …

Thank you, God for this life you have given me … for this place you have set me … for this man by my side and my children to keep me young … for the gift of my talent for creating and crafting … for all the good times and the bad ….

To paraphrase the words of the Byzantine “birthday” song: “God, grant me many years”