Awesome, incredible, fantastic…pick your most positive adjective and it will fit to describe today. Leading up to this milestone day I was not feeling overly enamoured with idea of turning 50. However, I have changed my mind and I think 50 is very cool. If today was any indication of how the future will be I’m ready for it!
I have been blessed to have had so many wonderful people in my life. I have been influenced, coached, mentored and loved by theses people. You all have touched my heart and left your impressions. I could not start to name you all but you know who you are. I carry you with me today and always.
Author: DM Matthews
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Birthday #50
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Goodbye 40’s
In just around 4 hours I will be turning 50 years old. In so many ways it seems impossible but when I look back at all that I have experienced in these 49 years it is truly amazing. All the good times and the not so good have made me who I am today. If you look at your life as a mosaic and think that all of those individual moments sewn together represent your journey. There will be bright moments and darker ones but it takes all of them to complete your personal picture. I think my mosaic is looking pretty good and I hope it is many more years before it is complete. Goodbye 40’s, let’s see what the next decade brings!
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9 Days and Counting…
I can hardly believe that in 9 days I will turn 50 years old! How could that possibly have happened? It seems like yesterday that I was running around the neighbourhood playing Army with my brothers, or planning the next snowball war with the kids from the next block. (No slush balls or embedded objects allowed). Before we knew it we could hear Mom calling us to come home for dinner. That would mean Dad would be waking up and having supper for his breakfast. Dad worked the Midnight to 0:800 shift so he slept during the day. We always ate together at 5:00 every day no matter what.
Sunday’s were an exception because we went to my grandparent’s house after mass. We would hang out or play whatever sport the season dictated, baseball in the sumner, football in the winter. Then it was back inside for pasta and meatballs…wow I swear I can still smell my grandma’s sauce. It would have been cooking for a minimum of 8 hours, simmering away. After dinner Grandma would put a plate of cookies on the table, not just for us kids but also for my Grandpa who would not leave the table without eating at least one cookie. There were always 8 or 9 different types of cookies, all homemade of course. I don’t know how she made so many different cookies all with different dough. I know how long it takes me to make one batch of cookies, I can’t imagine doing that. However my mom has kept up the multi-cookie tradition.
See I told you it seems like it was yesterday, I could go on with stories as that was a glimpse of just a couple days in these 50 years. I’m looking forward to the next 50. -
Not Your Ordinary Commute
I have been very lucky when it comes to commuting to work. Before I moved to the UK I was lucky enough to to drive to and from work with views of the Pacific Ocean. I always made sure I never took that commute for granted. Fourteen years later and I still have the privilege to enjoy views that not many Americans can claim. This morning, for example, I arrived in Paddington Station, got in the taxi and within five minutes I was skirting the edges of Hyde Park, next came the Wellington Arch, quickly followed by Green Park on the left and Buckingham Palace on the right and the expanse of The Mall in front of me. Another 3 minutes and we pass Horse Guards Parade on the left heading straight ahead to cross Bridge Street passing Westminster Palace on the right. On the left as we cross the bridge The London Eye was reaching up into the sky as we near my destination at Waterloo Station. Wow, was that a commute or a grand tour of one of the most incredible cities in the world? I told you I was lucky.
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What an Incredible Summer
It is just past 6:00 A.M. and I’m on the train heading into London, the sun is shining and there is not a cloud in the sky. Even the most traditional Brits will have a hard time complaining about this summer. We have had fantastic weather and it is true when people say “if the weather was like this every summer no one would go abroad.” The temps are set to rise even more by Friday giving us our hottest day yet of 30C or 86F! We will be hotter here than in Grand Canaria! The only downside to today is the fact that I am working and having to wear a suit. No worries, at this time of year we will have sun until nearly 10:00 so there will be time to still enjoy the evening in our garden.
This past Sunday I celebrated the 14th anniversary of arriving in the UK and I still love it! I hope the sun is shining for you today. -
A Day to Forget
Today was nothing less than a total disaster. It was one of those days that 15 minutes after starting work all you can think about was finishing. If I think about it this day to forget actually started yesterday. I made one of those rookie errors…you know the one, you are in a negative frame of mind and you get an email which you just have to respond to. Well I did and hit “send” before realising I had chosen “Reply All” instead of “Reply”. You can imagine my surprise when this flaming, raging email comes back. Oops! Then came my frantic apology to “All” with a follow up phone call that was sent to voicemail. So my day started with having to face some fall out from yesterday’s debacle and went rapidly downhill from there. Finally my last meeting of the day arrives and it is a meeting where I should not need to think too much, more of a listening encounter for me. I thought “ah this one should be easy”. As soon as the thought entered my head I tried to banish it, I knew it was analogous to walking into an Emergency Communication centre and saying ” wow, it’s quiet in here”.
The web conference began and this voice from the end of the phone said “shall we start?” Off he went, showing slides that whizzed by at a rate of knots. I couldn’t read more than 3 words and the next slide appeared. He was talking so fast and slides slid by in a blur. After 10 minutes I thought to myself, “if this guy doesn’t take a breath he is going to pass out from oxygen deprivation.” All I can say is that he must free dive in his spare time. This man went non stop for 40 minutes before I had to break in. Not so much because I had a comment or question I just felt it was my duty of care to allow the man to inhale. The meeting mercifully ended (only because the hour was up), I think the gentleman could still be talking otherwise. I took my headset off, laid it on my desk and took a deep breath…I felt as if I had been put through some kind of psychological torture. Can your ears bruise? Mine felt like they were.
That was it, the day to forget was over. I thought maybe it was my punishment for my error the previous day. Oh, tomorrow has to be better. Oh wait, I have to go to the dentist to have two teeth extracted…maybe not then! -
Taking Travel Congestion to an All New Level Weak Stomach Advisory!
In the past I have travelled long haul next to Mr Stinky, Miss Stinky, Toddler From Hell, the Silent Flatulence Assassin and the Sneezing, Coughing and Blowing Group. However, last night’s trip across the Atlantic I had the Snort, Swallow and Gag Couple. It worked like this; he would snort like bull then swallow loudly. Now I understand why at check in, the female part of this duo tried to get her seat changed so she was not sitting near her husband! This is because she provided the gag in the trio of bodily noises that stretched across the 6 hours, 55 minutes and 22 seconds of the flight. Headset on full volume did not work, ear plugs did not work, even a whiskey did not work, my imagination and personal gag reflex worked overtime! Needless to say I was not very interested in the food on this leg of my journey. I must admit the Toddler From Hell doesn’t really seem so bad now.
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On My Way Home
I am just completing 10 day whirlwind trip to the US and Canada. I fly home tonight at 9:00 and I cannot wait to get on that plane! My trip has not been bad by any means, as a matter of fact, it has been very good. The opportunity to spend the weekend with my incredible friends in Atlanta was time I am so grateful to have had. On the business side it has been good as well even when I was not predicting the Canada leg to be good at all. You are probably wondering why I am so anxious to get on the plane home. Well I guess that is it really…home, getting home, being home. When your partner is as wonderful as mine and your life is as full as mine, home is what it is all about. On my many travels get to see a lot of people in a lot of different places and the number of truly happy ones I encounter is woefully small. We all have so much going on in our lives that we forget that a kind word or acknowledgement is all it would take to make someone’s day. I challenge you to make it a priority tomorrow to make someone’s day! Let me know how you get on.
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Almost 50
I am now on the doorstep to my 50th year, (it seems strange to even write that), I don’t think of myself as “old” or getting old. In many ways I feel younger than I did in my 30’s. I am certainly more emotionally energised and am taking advantage of every day. I do not allow months to pass where I look back and ask myself “what have you accomplished, who have you helped, what did those months achieve”, without an answer. In this way I am more proactive than ever before. I have found my place in the world and I have found my true love but instead of feeling I have “arrived” it it clear there is so much yet to do.
Let’s face it we are living longer but that is no guarantee. It is not about the number of years it is how you spend them and I plan on living every one of them to the full. I am so fortunate to have my partner, my friends and my family, I will not take their love for granted and I hope to continue returning it for many more years. Come on 50, I’m ready for you! -
Sisters
I grew up as the only girl between two boys, wonderful boys but boys. I often wondered what it would be like to have a sister. It was not the usual girly stuff I would think about, not the fixing each other’s hair or picking out shoes. I was a Tom boy through and through so my placement between two boys was perfect for me. Although sometimes I would think it would be nice to have a sister to share those precious secrets with or to have someone who knew me as well as I knew myself. I was lucky to have a few good friends but I knew it was not the same. One friend in particular through high school then as high school ended and real life began we took different paths and then were in different parts of the country and eventually we were an ocean apart. Over the intervening 20 years I tried to find my friend so many times with no success, then the technology that is FaceBook came along and we finally reconnected.
That was almost 5 years ago and I vowed we would never lose touch again. Durning those long years apart I realised that I did indeed have a sister, she is as special to me as any sister could be. Tonight I had the pleasure to be in her home, among her amazing friends and saw the girl I used to know as the incredible woman she has become. She is loved by these people and I know that she is in good hands when I am not here.
Angela, my friend my sister, I love you!