Celebrating Fifty Years of Life

Gratitude, Glimmers, and Curiosity

Celebrating 50 years of living

I recently celebrated my 50th birthday.

Happy birthday to me!

I had intended to send out an earlier post as I tried to scrape my brain together to write something legible in the fog of jet lag. I have written something. I just haven’t pressed send. And then my birthday rolled around.

Fifty.

Half a century.

I have less life ahead of me than behind me—unless I live to the ripe old age of 100. I guess it’s possible.

On my 40th birthday, I had little idea of what would come. The past decade has seen so many changes in my life.

I moved city and state in Australia, then country. I’ve had so many different jobs it’s hard to count them. I’ve been divorced and remarried. I’ve helped build a sauna, joined a rock band and started singing, started writing regularly, published poetry in real books, wrote some song lyrics with a friend putting them to music, I’ve taught German in Swedish, maths in Swedish (so many things in Swedish!), I completed the Inner MBA course, a Mindfulness Instructor’s course, and started a business…

I certainly haven’t let the decade slide by.

Saying No… and Yes

I’ve learned that saying no is as important as saying yes. Saying no to bullying, racism, misogyny, and mass deforestation. Saying no to people and situations that don’t honour you, that don’t support you, and don’t fill your cup. Saying no to inequality, injustice, and disinformation.

Saying yes to glimmers, to people who meet you with love and compassion. Saying yes to rituals and ways of being that enrich your life and other’s lives. Saying yes to “doing the thing,” all of the things! Saying yes to creativity, singing—loudly, swimming, stretching, writing, journaling, questioning. Saying yes to curiosity, to travel, to tasting the weird-looking food.

Gratitude

Every single day I practice gratitude. On waking every morning. Before I go to bed at night.

There are so many things to be grateful for. So many people in my life—real life and out there in Zoom calls who I’ve not met (yet). Family who have known me my whole life and I’ve known them their whole lives. Through all the stages of my life, I’ve been blessed to find people who support and love me.

Of course, there have been some less than thrilling folks too—the bullies and the critical—but I’m grateful to say that I’ve learned from them too because learning how not to be is also important.

Curiosity

Sometimes I’ve questioned my curiosity, perhaps believing that saying about it killing the cat. I’ve pushed myself and challenged myself and sometimes I’ve wondered why, because it’s been difficult or awkward or painful. But that’s also part of life. We grow and change and develop through just these difficulties.

I think that saying was thought up to keep people small. To keep people from being adventurous, brave and curious. To stop people from questioning injustice and bullying.

Especially for women.

I always go back to history, being a History lover, teacher and learner, because if you go back far enough, you find the root of things.

My curiosity has led me from book to book to book. It saw me sidetracked in the Barr Smith Library at Adelaide University, finding dusty tomes deep in the cellar levels, chasing a particular thread. I’ve read thousands of words due to my curiosity. Absorbed all sorts of points of view and perspectives. Travelled in time, walked roads no longer there and held words written by people who are now dust and stars.

What a rich fifty years of learning! All, driven by curiosity.

In my half a century, I’m grateful to be where I am. To feel, to experience, to say ‘yes’ and ‘no’, to love deeply, to reflect, to share, to live.

I am grateful to you, dear reader, for supporting my writing, for being patient (I try to be consistent!), for sharing and caring.

Stay Well,

Lisa x

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