Today is my 50th birthday. It’s a milestone that bothers some people more than others. For me it is just a number. Inside I still feel about 27. It is a time for reflection, not to see things one cannot change but just to acknowledge how far I have traveled in this life of mine and how happy I am to be where I am, living the life I am. I count having the world’s greatest spouse, aka, my best friend, as one of the biggest blessings in my life and the reason I wake up every day with a smile on my face.
I am marking the day with nothing special, since it’s a work day, but I would like to copy something that
![[info]](http://www.backup.susantaylorbrown.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/userinfo1.gif){kind=small}
did a few months ago to mark her birthday. She asked for people to share a special memory. I thought that was a wonderful way to celebrate life so I will ask the same.
If you happen to be coming by here and have a few minutes to spare, would you please help me celebrate my birthday by sharing a special memory with me? It doesn’t have to be long. (And it doesn’t have to be about me.)
Thank you.
Happy Birthday!
Thanks! You icon always makes me smile.
Thank you, Son#1 drew that for me!
Not long after I “met” you online, you posted a contest. “Send me a picture or drawing of your Rock,” you said. I sent you a picture of my beloved friend and surrogate mother, Posy. She’s gone now, as you know, but I’ll never forget that you initiated a conversation about someone who mattered so much to me.
Since then, your hand of friendship has touched me deeply, in ways too numerous to mention.
Happy Birthday, beautiful Susan. Many returns of the day, my kind-hearted friend.
Thank you, Melody. I very much remember you “introducing” me to your rock, Posy. I was so glad to get to know your special friend even just a little bit. Thank you for reminding me of that memory.
I knew….
…when I saw Mr.Hemingway’s birthday anniversary there was something special about today….
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Susan!!!
Re: I knew….
Thanks, Slatts! Yep, me, Hemingway and Robin Williams. LOL
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am looking forward to creating a memory with you when we meet for the first time next month! Hooray!
xo
Me too!
Happy Birthday, Susan! Yea for you for celebrating your achievements and journeys!
I so enjoyed meeting you at Chautauqua and watching you present. You connected with those of us in your workshop in such an honest, vulnerable way. It was truly beautiful and touched so many people!
Thank you lovely. Our time at Chautauqua was too short but a wonderful memory for me too.
First off, happy birthday. I figured I should get that out of the way, since by tomorrow, I might forget it’s your actual birthday.
A special memory: I remember sitting up late at night while visiting my aunt’s condo in the mountains of New Hampshire, and seeing the moonlight sparkle on the leaves of a birch tree in a way that made it look like the tree was hung with fairy lights.
“hung with fairy lights.” is a lovely image. Thank you for sharing it Kelly.
Happy Birthday to the Sweetest Susan In Town. {} I wish you a day of beauty and joy. You know. Getting back all that you give. {}
When I think of you, Susan, I instinctively dredge up the image of your long blonde hair and the photo of you bending over to kiss your dog.
But I THINK of how literary and deep you, always looking to share thoughts about our work and yours. I think of you as the rock solid foundation of any writing group I find you in– here on LJ or in e-mail forums. You are never one to take your writing and your writing friends for granted. You are always trying to keep US in line and on track and focused. You give help and you know when to ask for your own.
I think of you surrounded by your figurines and books and your flowers. I think of you Hugging Rocks and Praying with Your Eyes open.
I think of you as a friend and colleague and I think it is absolutely insane I have never been in the same room with you.
But what’s a few thousand miles between buddies? I love you, Susan. May this birthday give you a lifetime of reasons to look ahead, a lifetime of reasons to know that surely THE BEST IS YET TO COME. {}
Oh happy day to YOU,
Pamela
Dear, sweet Pamela. I can feel your hug across the miles. Thank you.
Happy Birthday, Susan!! Congratulations on reaching this significant milestone — 50 is nothing to sneeze at!
Today is my mom’s 84th birthday, and whenever I think of her, I think about the beautiful orchids she grows in her yard, orchids she inherited from my grandmother. I know you love gardening, too, and creating beautiful natural landscapes. Thanks for beautifying LJ and have a wonderful birthday!
Thank you, Jama.
Orchids growing in such of lovely place is a beautiful memory. Thank you.
Happy, happy birthday!
Here’s my memory, a recent one:
My husband, also my best friend, turned 50 a few months ago. I threw him a big party at a nice restaurant, and more importantly … managed to get up in front of everyone and give a little speech about him. (I hate speaking in front of groups of people.) Here are some snippets of my tribute:
He plays the trumpet.
He loves jazz, especially Miles Davis, and the endless noodling of Charlie Parker. He even taught me to appreciate jazz.
He taught me to drive a stick shift.
He makes a mean eggs-and-onions … and he brews a strong cup of coffee.
He understands that even a bookworm can be sexy.
He bought me my first computer.
He has believed in me – my writing – unfailingly.
He’s the kind of guy who laughs at fart jokes.
He’s the kind of guy who cries during “Toy Story 2,” when Jessie gets left behind by her owner.
We’ve been through the death of a parent, the birth of a child, various forms of disease and destruction, and I don’t know how many vehicles.
He’s my best friend. He’s the steel beam holding up my life. Anyone who’s been married knows that it’s hard work. We have toiled in the deepest, darkest marital mines together. But right now, we’re standing in the sunlight.
I hope that your birthday is filled with people telling you how important you are to them.
xo
Oh that is THE. BEST. MEMORY. Thank you for sharing it with me.
That he taught you to drive a stick, he must be a saint as I know I tried the patience of many a man trying to learn how to do that and have failed (given up) every time. 🙂
Happy Birthday to a kindred spirit, a friend to man and animal both. Your compassion and your thoughtful comments are precious to me and I always look forward to them.
A precious memory…I often went fishing with my aunt and uncle during the summer. One time, we went night fishing and such a big fish got on my line that it yanked my rod and reel right out of my hands. I remember standing there, watching in horror as it disappeared into the water. It didn’t belong to me; they had let me borrow it and it was one of their nicest ones. I went back to camp sick at heart.
Early the next morning, my uncle’s nephew got up early and went back to the same spot to fish. He caught one, and as he reeled it in, it snagged on my rod and reel and he pulled both in! From them on, we had a family joke – “The biggest fish bite at night.”
Thanks for the kind wishes.
I love your fishing memory! My grandfather was the only one who ever had the patience to fish with me because I made so much noise. I loved the IDEA of fishing, just not so much the sitting still part.
Happy Birthday! Mine is tomorrow too. My memory is about how when I was a kid I found it to be very inconvenient to have a birthday on July 22nd. First, if I wanted a party, all my friends were out of town for vacation. Second, horoscopes are complicated. What are we anyway, Cancers or Leos?
I SO hear you on the no parties because of summer vacation and yes, what are we? Some newspapers make us Cancer and some Leos. Sitting on that darn cusp can be mighty uncomfortable.
Special Memories: The start of our First Thursdays and how inspired I’d feel after our coffee and cake sessions. I’m looking forward to staring them back up in August!
Happy happy birthday, my friend!!!!!
*hugs*
That is a treasured memory of mine to – the building of our friendship.
First of all, HAPPY BIRTHDAY! My mom swears her 50s have been way more awesome than her 40s, and I hope the same is true for you.
I don’t know if this counts as a memory but I’ve very much enjoyed our Scrabulous games and the deep, soul-searching conversations we type to one another during them. I hope some day to meet you face-to-face, give you a big hug, and tell you how wonderful I think you are.
Thanks for the good wishes. I love our chats too. I think we have a phone call in our future, don’t you?
And I am hoping that the 50s are as fabulous as everyone says they are!
Yes! Definitely. 🙂
Hope you had a fantabulous birthday and that this year brings you much love, peace, and happiness …
Happy Birthday Susan!
I remember reading your book, HUGGING THE ROCK, and thinking what an incredible writer you are. I remember being mad at Rachel’s mom for not being able to appreciate the gift she’d been given, and being sad for Rachel, knowing, in a different way, a little of how she felt at times growing up.
I’m so glad you are in the LJ neighborhood, Susan. It’s much brighter because of you!
Oh Lisa, I am so touched that you shared a HTR memory with me. Thank you.
Happy Birthday! You are at the beginnning of a new decade — I always prefer that. I felt much older at 39 than I did at 40, and I know I’ll feel the same at 50. So enjoy being ‘barely in your early fifties’, and I’ll join you on April 5th 2010, when we’ll both be ‘early fifties’. So much nicer than ‘late forties’, don’t you think?
I love the way you have kindled my memory-fire since I’ve known you, Susan! For some reason your request reminded my of one of my favourites: I’m at the cottage, in one of my favourite places — the tree-hammock just beside the front porch, looking over the lake and shaded by a huge pine. It’s made of plaid blanket-cloth, with a fringe that is always tangled, and it’s a bit scratchy but not scratchy enough to bother me.
It’s a perfect place to sneak away from the hubbub of the dock, which is covered with people and activity, because I can watch them all from this secret perch, but they can’t see me. It’s cold up under the trees, out of the sun, in my wet bathing suit, so I wrap the sides of the hammock around my body. Only my head peeps out, and I can rock and dream while keeping an eye on everyone in case something exciting happens. Someone might catch a big fish, or one of the little kids might decide to jump off the diving board without a life preserver for the very first time.
Or a visitor might drop by the dock. Maybe Mr. Allen, in his shiny cedar strip boat, driven by Kelly the Irish Setter, who always rides up front with her paws on the steering wheel. Of course we know it’s really Mr. Allen steering with the motor at the back of the boat, but Kelly thinks she’s steering, and that’s what matters.
Or maybe unexpected cousins will arrive by the road, and I’ll be first to greet them. Maybe the cousins will have a girl my age, who’d like to hunt under the porch for more of the tiny china tea set. I found a tiny china cup there last week, and Cousin Marion said there was a whole set when they were young, so there could be more…or maybe I’ll just close my eyes for a minute…
I love your summer memory and I can just see Kelly at the wheel of the boat! Thank you for sharing it with me.
Memories for your Birthday
Ah memories..
Susan,
I have had the honor of hearing and reading your work way back in Mrs. Hacket’s 7th grade English class. In High School we shared our love of word play. And then finding you years later on the internet, seeing how much your craft has grown, what was already wonderful only improving as time goes on. We are blessed not only with what you write, but with what you share. Of your life and the art of writing, that which is so very much Susan. Thanks Susan, and please keep it up!
Fred Higgins
Re: Memories for your Birthday
Fred, thanks so much for sharing a birthday memory with me.
Happy, happy birthday, Susan! Hope this is your best year ever!
Thanks so much! Love the icon. It mad me giggle.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! : D
Thanks, Laura!
happy birthday Susan!
I hope that we can meet one day as we have friends in common (Debbi, Toni B) but for now I’ll share one of my own birthday memories:
I was a young adult traveling in Europe and it was my birthday, and I read a book by Janet Frame that stated: and she opened the bud of one more birthday, finding it as usual, not quite perfect (I don’t have the exact quote any more!)
and it made me feel a bit sad & I swore to myself that no matter what, I wouldn’t be disappointed in birthdays.
so I try to find some special way to celebrate…
hope yours is a GREAT one!!
I love that line! Thank you. I think it is good goal, to not be disappointed in birthdays if at all possible.
I do hope we get the chance to meet someday. I keep thinking I need to make an east coast trip to meet people.
Happy birthday! On my last birthday — my 55th — I swung on a swing. Gosh, I guess we get to be more excited about small things??
Of course I did get a nice dessert, no cake. July birthdays are great — I think of blueberries and orange day lliies.
I LOVE swings and am making sure I put one in the new yard! Thank you for sharing with me.
I still feel 27 at 57!
Here’s my memory. I’ve always had insomnia, where I’d waken in the middle of the night and lie there thinking, then fall asleep again. This one time I was about eight, and for the first time, I thought about learning. As I stared up at the white part of the ceiling with the fake plaster festoons and the pink walls, dimly lit by reflection from the street lamp in front of the neighbor’s, I saw myself crouched down inside a clay cave. Every new thing I learned was like a gouge with my fingernails in the wall of the cave. The side walls were for learning how to do things. But above me was learning about the world, the universe, and beyond. I thought, if I just gouge out enough clay–learn enough things–some day I will break through to the sky, and beyond the sky, because I will know everything and be wise.
Well, I was eight. *wry grin*
ARGH, and stupid completely forgot the most important part: may you have a wonderful day, beginning a wonderful year full of joyful surprise, leading to many more wonderful years.
Oh I can see this eight-year-old with the vivid imagination staring up at the ceiling. This part, especially – “… some day I will break through to the sky, and beyond the sky, because I will know everything and be wise.”
Thank you for sharing with me and thank you for the original idea!
Happy birthday!!! I’m with you – 50 is just a number. (I’m 57 and it doesn’t bother me one bit.) I think age makes you better and smarter.
A memory: Being in my grandfather’s huge vegetable garden with him. He grew peanuts and I used to help him gather them and then my grandmother would boil them in a huge pot on the back of the stove.
Yep, better and smarter and hopefully less likely to give a rip about the BS in life. That’s my hope.
I adore grandfather memories. My grandfather was my world for 10 years. Thanks for sharing a bit of yours with me.
Rod McKuen
I remember that you REALY like Rod McKuen.
I smiled when I read your post about him —
One of the first records I bought was his live at Carnegie Hall April 29, 1969– for my Mom – because his birtday is the day after hers.
Here’s a video for you!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Re: Rod McKuen
oh how sweet you are to remember my affection for Rod McKuen. Thank you for that and for the video which brightened my day considerably.
Happy Birthday, Susan! Turning 50 for me was huge. I did it quietly while at Chautauqua. I didn’t tell a soul it was my day. But I loved it that way. It was a milestone week for me – the beginning a of wonderful new phase in my life.
I pray your 50’s will be joyfilled and prolific!
Having taught at Chautauqua and been surrounded by the magic that is that place I can understand how perfect a day that would be. Thank you for sharing it with me.
I’m so impressed that you taught there! I want that gig…
Wishing you a delightful and Happy 50th Birthday, Susan!
Thank you so much!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I hope today launches the best year yet.
My special memory comes from my 30th birthday. My husband knew that I’d always, always lusted after those doll cakes you can buy in the bakery–the ones with the Barbie stuck in the middle of a cake dome with piles of buttercream frosting. There is a longer story here that involves 5-year-old Pam, an amateur radio fest and a father’s foolish promise about a raffle–but that is for another day.
So, back to the doll cake. We had friends over for New Year’s Eve, which was close enough to my bday. Suddenly, the lights are dimmed, the music “Barbie World” is blasting, and the pinkest most beautiful doll cake is there, 30 candles lit, waiting for me to blow them out. It was so geeky and so cool. I loved it.
And may I say it was also TASTY. You just can’t beat Publix cake, doll-shaped or not.
I kept the Barbie until my son discovered it and used it for a hammer. Her head only held out for so long.
Oh I had forgotten all about those Barbie cakes! I lusted for one when I was young too – actually any kind of bakery cake but my grandmother always made the cake for me.
My cousin made a Barbie cake like that for me when I was past the wanting of it (she was taking a class of some kind.)
Thanks for bringing back a memory for me.
Memory and a blue stone band aid
I was drafting a reply about your rock problem and I was suddenly hit by a fond memory of High School and you. So I thought I would leave you another memory for your Birthday. Remember those bib-overalls that you wore as one of the Little People Mascots? There are a couple of pictures of you wearing them among the photos on your website. I loved it when you wore those to school. And I especially enjoyed you wearing them (my apologies to your husband) when I was walking behind you on the way to class! That thought might give you a Birthday chuckle. I hope so anyway! 😉
About the Rock, I talked to the folks I was referring to in my previous entry. They went from a Kelly Green* to a pale Jade* using concrete stain with good results. (*My wife the Color Nazi could give you a more exact analogy.) The bad news is it has a tendency to wear off over time. Maybe this could at least give you a short term fix. And hopefully I have not brought a negative into your Birthday by bringing this up.
Fred
(Higgins)
Re: Memory and a blue stone band aid
Thanks for this memory, Fred. (my husband got a laugh out of it too.)
And for the blue stone band aid. I’m going to look at some concrete stain after work!
Once, when I was on vacation, I took some time in the middle of an afternoon to sit by the Snake River and watch the pelicans drift by. Nothing earth-shaking happened; I’ve just always remembered that pause, that hour I gave myself to do nothing but be.
Happy birthday!
Oh what a lovely memory…. “watch the pelicans drift by.”
I don’t think I have ever actually seen a pelican away from a zoo/aquarium. Thank you.
When I was in my twenties and not “hooked up” with anyone special, I realized I could wait a long time for someone to travel with, so I took off for the U.K. on my own for a month. This was after years of reading British kids’ books (my mom grew up in England) and having studied Victorian Lit for several years in college. I had done my masters thesis on Wuthering Heights and my orals on the whole Bronte family.
In London, I went to the National Portrait Gallery. In one room is the painting of Charlotte, Emily, and Anne that Branwell painted. (He originally painted himself in, too, but then painted over that part of the picture–not well, he’s totally there as a smudged patch, which says something…)
I stood in that room, in front of that painting, for a half hour. Literally. I took photos, knowing they’d never be good enough. I walked away and came back. I stared. It’s not a particularly good painting, but that just didn’t matter. They all touched that painting, I’m sure. It was in their house, with them. I knew once I left, I might very well never see it again.
It was one of those just right moments.
Becky I got the shivers when I read your memory. Thank you so much for sharing it with me and letting me “be there” with you.
And I forgot to say Happy Birthday! Hope it was a good one. 🙂
Bon anniversaire à toi! Bon anniversaire à toi! Bon anniversaire mon cherie! Bon anniversaire à toi!
My memories grow more romantic and less truthful as I get older. A blessing, I think. That being said:
The first time I flew over the city of Paris, I thought my soul would burst with happiness. Walking through the gritty, dirty, streets in the early hours of dawn only pushed her beauty deeper into my soul. She is imperfect and broken. She is the perfect companion of my heart.
Merci beaucoup!
“She is imperfect and broken. She is the perfect companion of my heart.”
I sobbed when I read this. Not because of Paris but because it came at just the right time of the night last night that I needed to hear it. Thank you for sharing.
Re: Happy Birthday!!!
Love the Nettie memory, Tracie. Thank you, my friend.
Happy BDay
Hey , what a good birthday you have! It’s mine too (the 21st–was too busy yesterday to read much)–and 35, some might consider a milestone, though I think not as much as 50.
Test, just a test
Hello. And Bye.