It's just a number....

   It's just a number. It's appears on legal documents for information, you're asked at least once a day for it. You need it for almost everything you do--it's your birth date. It tells the world how old you are. You've seen the sign, 'if you were born before this day', you may purchase a cold refreshing drink. When I'm ask I give them numbers, 10-22-57. I've heard people do the opposite and give month and entire year. Me, I make it simple. I won't live to 2057, so I don't worry about saying the entire year.
   When my parents were my age, I use to think of them as old, but 55 is not old. Some days I feel 90, I have aches and pains and after setting for a period of time it's hard to get moving. Then on the other hand some days I feel 20 again. I can work non stop all day. I've noticed past year that I'm starting to show some age in my face. My doctor says that chemo will age you a few years. Well, that makes me feel great.....
   This past weekend my florist friends were taking photos of us and when I looked at them I made the remark that I looked old, they said I was just seeing things that I still had it. Even though they were being kind it didn't take the feeling away. I look in the mirror and I don't see what I seen a few years ago. We can't all look 21 forever. I look at my Mom and I don't see her as being 83. In my eyes she is beautiful. Thomas says I still make his heart skip a beat when he looks at me. He looks beyond the wrinkles, sagging skin and age marks and he sees me, the one he fell in love with. With that said, I'm not going to worry about aging and only look in the mirror when I comb my hair.
   Age, it's just a number.

   To keep the heart unwrinkled, to be hopeful, kindly, cheerful, reverent-that is the triumph over old age.    ~Thomas Bailey Aldrich

                              My beautiful Mom and her sister Ruthie, taken about 30 years ago.