Back in the Blogging Saddle Again

Birthdays, Aging and the Blessing of Music

Happy Birthday to me! I’m in a new decade now and I remember being a teenager thinking that my current age is SO OLD! Now that I am here it doesn’t seem that old at all. 

I still have a lot of the same teenager dreams I’d like to achieve. However, as Joni Mitchell so brilliantly stated, “they’ve lost a little grandeur coming true”. I have to fit my writing and practicing in between my teaching job, lesson plans and grading papers. The key is to still fit it in. I also take more naps now and I had an appointment with my oncologist to “celebrate” my birthday.  She even gave me a present…two bottles of yuck that I have to drink before a scan.  Actually, it is a celebration because I’m a surviver!  

I’ve put on weight, and have a few more wrinkles. I’d have grey hair but there is this wonderful thing called hair color that I believe in and highly recommend. Also, my hair stylist, Priscilla, is almost as good as a therapist. And the weight thing…well, I can do something about that and thanks to Jennifer Barnes and Optavia I’m beginning a journey to conquer that controllable problem. Ooh! That is another thing about getting older, you learn to concentrate on the things you can control instead of worry about the things you can’t. At least most days.  Here is a pic of me in this new decade. There are some wrinkles. Can I call them wisdom lines?

On this anniversary of the day of my birth I can honestly say, the spirit of that teenage girl is alive and well within me. The spirit is a little wiser, much feistier, a lot less gullible and more aware of people not always being everything they pretend to be. I’ve been “burned” a time or two. But beautiful things are forged in a fire. 

I am also more sure than ever of God’s love and grace. After living all these years I know that I don’t have all the answers to all the things. I am now skeptical of anyone who says they do. There is a LOT of mystery to the Christian faith and I embrace the mystery and thank God for the love and mercy and kindness He has shown me throughout my life. God loves me. I will never understand it, so why pretend I do? I just accept the love and I really want to share that love with those I meet on a daily basis. I think I’m becoming more concerned about the actions and the doing of the “spreading love thing” than I am about the talking/preaching about it. “Actions speak louder than words” is an old cliche’ for a reason. Sometimes actions SCREAM at you. Maya Angelou said “people will show you who they are, believe them.” Wise words! I was a little late learning that.

Aging is something that will happen to everyone unless it doesn’t. Which would mean tragedy for you and your loved ones. So, embrace the aging and dare I say, embrace the aged! There is this weird thing out on the world wide “interweb” and in the “twitterverse” Christian book world and facebook world that says boomers and millennials don’t like each other. I don’t get it. I think people who don’t really know other people in different generations say those kinds of things. If you are a boomer who doesn’t take time to get to know some twenty somethings, or a millennial who doesn’t have time for a boomer, then you are part of that crazy internet problem and you are truly missing out. I can honestly say that some of my sweetest friends right now are in their twenties or early thirties. These young people came to our aid when we needed friends this summer. Jordan, Kaela, Ben and Mike put actions to their words to help Tom and I  in our time of need. Anna M. and Catie and Kara have been supportive friends who check in with me regularly and care about and pray for me. These are all millennials who have blessed my socks off. I KNOW there are things they probably don’t understand about me, but mostly we really like each other. I know I really like them. We laugh and talk and we love music, friends, family and God and we are all sure that life is a mystery and it is hard to figure everything out. I don’t feel a generation gap. Sorry “all wise internet”. 

So if you have a problem with someone because of their age. Too old? Too young? Wow. I’m so sorry for you. You are missing out on A LOT!

The last thing I wanted to mention in my happy birthday to me blog is MUSIC. Music has been a wonderful thing in our life. Tom and I have talked about the way the musical community in the DFW area supports one another when there is tragedy or times of need or sadness. It is kind of crazy. There is a community there that has been forged through studying music together in college, playing artistic gigs that no one but the band cares about, or playing corporate type gigs together for crazy clients, or having those moments of musical nirvana when everything just seems to sound and feel right, or those moments when the gig was so weird or bad that you laugh about it and tell the stories for decades. There is a musical community and I’m so thankful to be a part of it. So I’ve created this corny acrostic to end my birthday blog.

M - Medicine… It heals your heart, brings back memories, causes you to have a cry, pumps you up for the next leg of the                                               journey, focuses your attention on God, love or better days ahead

U - Universal…        It is for everyone everywhere. It brings people together. You can play tunes with someone who doesn’t even speak the same language you do and together create something beautiful.

S -  Support…         As I mentioned earlier, musicians have experienced disrespect. How many of you go to your day job and have people heckle you at your desk? As you do your work, they say, “I don’t like that… do this instead”or “Don’t talk so loud on the phone.” Or the best one, “this job will be good exposure for you, we can’t pay you for it though”. Musicians have dealt with disrespect, so as a general rule, we try to respect one another and lend our support when one of our community is being taken advantage of or treated badly. 

I -  Inspiration… Hans Christian Anderson said, “where words fail, music speaks”. Music has been a way for me to express my love for God and my worship. Music has been a way for me to show kids a new way of thinking about life and history. After great tragedies composers go crazy writing songs because it is the way we can inspire and give hope to a hurting world.

C - Ceaseless… It continues to speak to every generation. Every generation seems to create its own music and musical forms. It gives us a lens in which to look at people from other times and other places. And even though we don’t know very much about what Heaven will be like, we KNOW (because the Bible tells us so) that it will be filled with MUSIC.

So, I’m back to my blog now after a long break. I’m glad to be back.

Happy Birthday to me.  

SOLI DEO GLORIA (Bach wrote this on all his compositions and it means Glory to God alone.)

Pam