This last week was very hard for me. After my profound awareness involving stick charts and their usefulness in navigating the metaphorical ocean swells of existence, I descended into the pit of despair for a while. Everything in my world felt uncertain, shaky, impermanent, and unpredictable. Hey Lady, welcome to Life!
I am back on a slightly better track today. The roller coaster is heading up, once again. There are good things coming (like payment for work done) and feedback from my editors on what they need from me. My friend, Laura Shovan, posted one of my poems on her blog, Author Amok, in the company of some other really great poets. The theme is “children growing up and leaving home.” As you know, this is a topic near and dear to my heart. It is also my birthday weekend coming up and I will have a chance to celebrate. This is all beyond good and I am truly grateful.
I can see the light at the end of the first tunnel, and so I feel better. What I need to remember is that there are still more tunnels up ahead. I just have to keep going through them, keep going up, keep heading toward the Light and the laughter. (Go to the Light, Grasshopper!)
Yeah, well. The really interesting thing is that tomorrow, September 5, 2015 I will be 55 years old. Now, I was too young to celebrate my Golden Birthday (five on the fifth) back in 1965. For one thing, I was just too little, I didn’t know what 5 was, let alone a Golden Birthday. However, I’m pretty sure I had a fever that day and my party had to be cancelled. I do remember being rather upset about this, so clearly, I had some notion of what a “birthday” was. Birthday = cake and presents!
Secondly, I’m not convinced that the concept of “Golden Birthday” existed fifty years ago. If someone knows when this notion first came into common usage, please speak up.
So check it out. I will 55 on the 5th in the year 2015. Notice the gathering of “fives” there. I figure this amounts to some kind of triple whammy of greatness. (I know, there are really four fives there, but one of them is my birth date. The other three are the magical part.) A trifecta of fives. Maybe I will get bumped into the Platinum Birthday Club?
Who knows? I’ll find out.
Now, where’s that roller coaster?
Lisa Vihos: Poet and Novelist 