A Big One!

      "And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count.  It's the life in your years." 

 -  Abraham Lincoln

March is my birthday month.  It's a big one...50!  I had fun thinking about how things use-to-be.  I can remember as a kid thinking, "By the time I get old there won't be as many changes as the adults talk about now".  How wrong I was!  There have been so many changes it is mind boggling... 

I use to take photographs with a film camera, the rolls of film having 12, 24 or 36 exposures.  Now with my digital camera I can take hundreds of photographs on one 32GB memory card.  The best part is not having to wait until the film is developed to see my images.  

There were two phones, both land lines, in the house I grew up in.  I use to stretch the spiral cord on the kitchen phone as long as I could down the hallway for 'privacy'.  I was 30 years old when I got my first cell phone, I didn't think I needed one.  Now I don't  leave the house without my cell phone. If I do forget my phone when I leave the house, I turn back around to get it.

My favorite night on TV use to be Tuesday, Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley were on.  It was a bummer when the new fall shows were airing and I missed the shows because I had a 4-H meeting on the same night.  Now I watch Grace and Frankie on Netflix, any time or day.    

When I was little and my hot cocoa got cold, my mom heated it back up in a saucepan on the gas stove top.  Now I just pop it into the microwave, much quicker and no extra dishes.

Lego building blocks didn't have 'people' way back when I played with them, so I had to use my imagination.  I would use the '8-dotted' bricks for adults, the '4-dotted' bricks for kids, and the '2-dotted' bricks for babies.  Now there is The Lego Store with a vast array of little Lego people. 

I use to drink water straight out of the faucet and the garden hose with no worries.  Now I prefer my water filtered and chilled, dispensed directly out of the front of my refrigerator.

When I was a kid a magnifying glass could occupy me for hours burning holes in dried leaves with the help of the sun, and also looking really close at flowers and bugs.  Now I grab my trusty magnifying glass to make sure I have the numbers right when paying the bills.  

I remember my mom listening to Barbra Streisand on the big 8-track player with the music coming out of the speakers standing on the floor.  Now I carry all the songs I need on my iPhone, with Pandora I don't even use up any storage.

I enjoyed reading the big, thick, paper books of Little House on the Prairie series when I was a preteen.  There was an episode of Star Trek: the Next Generation I watched about that same time frame where Captain Picard and Wesley Crusher were discussing books.  Wesley was holding an electronic tablet in his hand which contained all of his books.  I remember thinking I will never see that day.  But now I have my Kindle, which looks eerily similar to Wesley's tablet all those years ago, with lots of books in my hand when I read and I can even read in the dark without turning a lamp on.

I use to think I would rather be young than old.  Except for the saggy skin and achy joints, I wouldn't want to be young again.  Having all those years behind me, I feel I have a better grasp on what really matters and try not to get caught up in the rest.

I use to think I had to be somewhere-other-than-here to see beauty.  I now realize beauty comes in so many different packages and it is my perspective, not necessarily what I look at, which points me towards beauty.

I use to find my faults much easier than my strengths.  I still find those faults, but I am quicker to set myself straight.  I also try to remember I am doing the best I can with the knowledge I have...and move forward, hopefully, without looking back.

I use to keep my dreams packed away, procrastinate until the 'right' time, because I was too busy for 'silly' ideas.  I now know there is never going to be the perfect time for anything and the best time to start any project is today.  

I hope to live the next 50 years walking in amazement and wonder at our world, finding the glass half full even when things don't look so good, trusting all will work out as it is supposed to in the end...and taking pictures every step of the way.  :)

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Have a great day!

Michelle B