“It reached the boat. Long clammy fingers grabbed the side, and a lugubrious face rose level with Nanny Ogg’s. ‘’ullo,’ it said. ‘It’sss my birthday.” — Witches Abroad, Terry Pratchett

 It'sss my birthday!

I want to age like sea glass.

Smoothed by tides, not broken. I want the currents of life to toss me around, shake me up and leave me feeling washed clean.

I want my hard edges to soften as the years pass , made not weak but supple. I want to ride the waves, go with the flow, feel the impact of the surging tides rolling in and out.

When I am thrown against the shore and caught between the rocks and a hard place, I want to rest there until I can find the strength to do what is next. Not stuck . just waiting, pondering, feeling what it feels like to pause. And when I am ready, I will catch a wave and let it carry me along to the next place that I am supposed to be.

I want to be picked up on occasion by an unsuspected soul and carried along , just for the connection, just for the sake of appreciation and wonder. And with each encounter, new possibilities of collaboration are presented, and new ideas are born.

I want to age like sea glass so that when people see the old woman I’ll become, they’ll embrace all that I am. They’ll marvel at my exquisite nature, hold me gently in their hands and be awed by my well-earned patina. Neither flashy nor dull, just a perfect lustre. And they’ll wonder, if just for a second, what it is exactly I am made of and how I got to this very here and now. And we’ll both feel lucky to be in that perfectly right place at that profoundly right time.

I want to age like sea glass. I want to enjoy the journey and let my preciousness be, not in spite of the impacts of life, but because of them ..

~ Bernadette Noll ~

(daily ex. update, morning dog walk 1.3 miles, afternoon tm run 7.1 miles for my birthday)