Monday Author: Susanne Skinner
Each week Aline and I tackle topics that are challenging, controversial, historical, uncomfortable, educational and opinionated.
This week we’re celebrating my husband’s birthday and I penned a few lines to commemorate a milestone occasion. Today the blog is lighthearted and just a bit tongue in cheek, and still opinionated!
TO MY HUSBAND ON THE OCCASION OF HIS 60TH BIRTHDAY
Time marches on and your birthday is here
There is no turning back, you are sixty my dear
It’s a wonderful age, a colossal event
But I’m sure you are wondering just where the years went
One day you are twenty and then fifty appears
And suddenly you wake up to sixty big years.
Your youth and your energy have diminished in size
Your legs are less nimble and so are your eyes
Your hair’s not the color it once used to be
Have you noticed how often you now have to pee?
Time is a thief; these are things we can’t alter
Your memory fades and your steps start to falter
Each day there’s a search for your keys or your glasses
And you’re forced to admit just how quickly time passes
You are mindful of things you once had but now lack
Like the spring in your step and the strength in your back
You can’t sleep through the night and forget things you knew
By nine in the evening its bedtime for you
Your muscles ache more and your joints pop and crack
Offering painful reminders of things you now lack
Yes, your birthday is here—you can’t run, you can’t hide
But the real proof of aging can be found deep inside
There are things that get better, that age cannot slow
So here is some wisdom from one in the know:
Your kids are the story your accomplishments tell
Each one a reflection of what you did well.
Your life’s filled with riches that money can’t own
Blessings that come when your twenties have flown
You are smarter and wiser, unafraid to take chances
You meet them head on with no backward glances
Your doubts and your fears have been left far behind
It’s time for your best life and it’s one of a kind
To those that would say life is done, now you’re old
Believe not a word—youth is way oversold
You are now in your prime—you have weathered each test
To those of us here you are simply the best
Our kids have all grown, now young women and men
Looking back on our journey, I would do it again
There are great years ahead; our lives are not done
We’ll walk through them together because now you can’t run
Don’t worry about sixty its really great fun
No mortgage, no tuition, good times still to come
And in case you are thinking your birthdays are done
Well, the truth is that next year you’ll be sixty-one
