Friday, May 22, 2009

50 years - the beginning of the rest of my life!


I see turning 50 as a landmark. The start of a new Era.
The first 20 years of life were my childhood. A happy childhood in most areas.
The next 30 years saw the establishment of my family, the search for love and meaningfull occupation. An area in which I could serve and contribute to society and to the earth. Thus I became by turns a farmer, full time mother and finaly a nurse.

Now, at 50 my parents are getting older and I am aware that I will be facing the loss of at least one parent in the near future. This is prompting me to take a closer look at death and dying in an effort to prepare myself both for the transition of a parent to the spiritual world and my own eventual death. I am thankfull that I have a close relationship with my brothers and sister. I recently had a patient who died suddenly and whose daughters who had had no contact with each other for years started fighting and even hitting each other in the halls of the ER.

My own children are now practically grown, and I look forward to seeing what paths their lives will be taking, and hope some time in the future to become a grandmother.

I still carry elements of my previous occupations with me. I grow an organic garden, and keep a few chickens. I enjoy running in (orienteering) and walking the dogs in the woods. I try to support the health of the environment by buying organic products, now that I have the means to do so.

When I was 20 I had my whole life ahead of me, but no clear idea of what I wanted to do with it. Now, at 50 there are so many things I still want to accomplish and the time to do it all in seems limited. In only 10 - 20 years I will be facing retirement. I want to make a contribution to people in developing countries and experience first hand the life there, either with disaster relief or through some other work as a nurse. To this end I embarked on an 18 month course to become a nurse anesthetist this year. I look forward to this enhancement of my nursing skills.

As I look ahead I hope for a period of increased freedom and mobility now that the children are grown. A chance to travel extensively. Illness is an increasing possibility that can limit my plans for work and travel and I become more and more conscious of the need to take care of my health, and to appreciate the good health that I currently enjoy. Perhaps I will make "Live Slowly" my motto for the future.

I am celebrating the beginning of this new era, not only with a change in career, but with a new dog, given me by my children, a trip to Paris given to me by my husband, and in June I have invited my family and a few close friends to join me for a dinner cruise on the worlds oldest paddle steamer. Today, though, we will celebrate modestly: my husband has made a delicious cake: "After-8 cheese cake", the girls are coming for dinner and we plan to go to the movies in the evening to see "Angels and Demons."


This is my birthday present from the children: Lucy the belgian sheepdog