Turning Seventy

 In two weeks I will be turning seventy, and I am filled with a myriad of feelings. On the one hand, there is the excitement of my retirement, the political energy and thrill of the possibility of having a woman of color as president and her Jewish husband as first gentleman. On the other hand, I have witnessed the world gone beserk as a former president goes on a rampage to destroy all the norms and decency of human behavior. I am filled with grief as I witness  political bullets flying over the world's stage, but I can protest--and will--to make the world the kind, safe place I want my children and grandchildren to grow up in. And I will.

I now have time and energy to fight for the causes I believe in, and the blessing of this time is it has filled me with convictions I have never had before. SEVENTY means you know who you are, for better or worse, so you can be that person, without an apologies. I never fit in a box, but now I don't care to be anything other than who I am. There is freedom in seventy--time to continue your passions (political and writing for me), and the leisure--with retirement--to read all the books I want to, but also  indulge in the joy of doing absoutely nothing at all.  I can go to the theater or museum with my husband, a friend, or just go solo.Or I can spend quality time with my grandchildren, and experience the sheer pleasure of that. And soon there will be a third, and I await his presence with an open-heart.

Of course, as my mind continues to stay active, I can not deny my body is not the same. Sleep is more often disrupted and sometimes my body betrays me--an ache, some pain, even as I get up in  the morning, I need to exerecise myself out of bed. I know it will ony get harder, but I am a fighter, I have always been, and so I will do what I need to do.

Indeed, in so many ways this is a good age, so even with the changes in my body, I will continue to take pleasure in the many joys that anchor me, and will fight even harder to make this world one I want to continue to live in for many years to come.

Happy birthday to me and to a new and better world that is waiting beyond the horizon!