Today you will not hear from Carole; she has been replaced for the day by me, Dale, her husband. Why? You ask? Well, I can answer that musically with a lyric from that old classic Earth, Wind and Fire song September.

Do you remember the 21st day of September?

Okay, got it yet? If not here’s another clue: September 21, 1965. Do the math – that was 50 years ago today and we’re giving Carole the day off! (from the blog, at least, since she’s going to work as usual. the nerve of a major birthday like this to fall on a Monday. sheesh.)

Alright, now I’m sure everyone is on board. Today we celebrate Carole as she turns the Big Five-Oh!

When I met Carole she was very young and when we started dating she had just passed over that little speed bump  known as 30. By the time she was 40 we had been married for eight years and now here she is on this new milestone of 50. And a wonderful milestone it is.

Carole and I talked a lot about how she feels about turning 50 while we were driving to a little getaway to the Cape this past weekend and I can assure you she is ready and raring to take her 50s by storm. I will now attempt to sum up our philosophical discussion on birthdays into 5 decades for simplicity.

• 0-10, you’re just little and you have fun!
• 11-20, you become your own person but adults don’t take you seriously . . . although you will hear adults tell you to grow up. A lot.
• 21-30, you grow up, you start making your own decision, some good and some, well, not.
• 31-40, your plans for your life start to take hold, some dreams come to fruition, some dreams change, you raise a family and you work hard
• 41-50, no doubt about it, now you’re an adult. You hit your stride, there’s lots of responsibility but also lots of satisfaction.

And then it happens. at least, according to Carole. You realize that there’s more sand in the bottom of that hourglass than the top and all of a sudden you are free to be the person you want to be. It doesn’t mean you won’t continue to work hard, take on new projects, learn new things and seek out new adventures, it just means you’ll have more fun doing these things because you won’t give a hoot about what people think about what you are doing. You are truly in charge of your own destiny in a way that you haven’t been before. And you come to realize that life is short and there are no guarantees so you’d better enjoy every minute of it doing the things that matter most with the people you love most.

So today we will celebrate this big birthday by looking back a little and looking forward a lot. The family is coming over tonight for a good old-fashioned birthday gathering complete with pizza and cake. (I hear Hannah has some surprises for her mom, too, something about a signature sangria? I think I’ll play it safe and stick to beer.) I’d sure appreciate it if you’d all send Carole a birthday wish because I know she appreciates all of you who read her blog and you are important to her.

I will say, as someone who is a bit, errr, older than Carole, that I do remember the 21st day of September in 1965. I am so glad and grateful that the journey Carole began on that day eventually crossed paths with my own journey because I sure do love her.

I’m going to end this post as it began, with the lyrics from a song:

May you build a ladder to the stars
And climb on every rung
May you stay forever young

Happy Birthday, my darling, and many many more.
Dale

Related posts:

Happy Birthday To My Mom What A Difference A Decade Makes Happy Birthday, Dale! Post Christmas Post