The First Sixtieth

60th Birthday

There are several of my friends who are turning 60 this year.  The first one, Janet, has a birthday on January 7th.  Yesterday Janet's daughter had a surprise breakfast gathering for her in her honor.  As it turned out, it was not a surprise.  A few weeks ago Janet began expressing to her daughter NOT to plan ANYTHING for her birthday.  She said it over and over and with such enthusiasm that her daughter began to feel she would be "in trouble" if she did.  So A admitted the event to her mother.  I don't think A had to tell Janet all the details, like who was attending, but enough to settle things down and get the ok for the event from her mother.
When A arrived with her mom and and Janet's only grand daughter, Janet had a huge smile on her face.  She was thrilled, it appeared to me, at the gathering of all the friends who had turned out to celebrate her birthday.
To my surprise, I knew all but two of them and I had heard of them but had not met them previously.

The 60th Birthday Gathering

 Some of the rest of us had been on trips together with Janet.  There was no one there who knew Janet less than 10 years (except her son in law and grand daughter).  The rest of her friends attending were admittedly "old" friends.  These were friends she had met through reading and books, music, work-design, and some she'd met through other friends.  I believe, of the friends there, I had known her the longest (although she has friends she had known longer than I, they were just not able to attend).  I've know her 32 years.  I met Janet when her daughter, A, was 3 years old.  A is now 35 WITH a 3 year old of her own. Isn't life something.  We worked together in one of our first interior design jobs after we had both graduated from college.  We were fast friends.
Through marriages, divorces, marriage and divorce again, we held each other up.  Through births and deaths we have been there.  Through agreeing and disagreeing; through thick and thin, through hell and high water, we are still friends.  Thirty two years requires a lot of growth and a lot of change.  It has not always been easy.  I believe however, God puts people in your life for a reason.  Thirty something years ago, in a job we both disliked, God saw fit to put us there together.  I'm so glad.  What a blessing she has been to me!  She has made a difference in my outcome and I thank God for her.
While I ended up in social work, Janet has gone on to be a fabulous interior designer who has changed the lives of other people through her ability to see something from nothing and to create something awesome out of someone's dream.  She has incredible vision and amazing talent.  She does such an amazing job, her clients become her friends.  They also come back and use her skills again later!  Both those things say a lot.  She is generous with her knowledge and her resources.
To one of my best and "oldest" friends, Happy 60th birthday...may you have many more and may the best be yet to come!  xoxo

Janet, Paula, Me.  This is three of us, October 2007.  We've been around the block together!  That's me with seriously short hair and no make up and about 20 pounds heavier.  My friends don't seem to have changed a bit.  Check out these photos from yesterday...

Me, A, Jane, Janet and Paula...we are family!

Ecclesiastes 4:9-10

New International Version (NIV)

⁹ Two are better than one,
    because they have a good return for their labor:
¹⁰ If either of them falls down,
    one can help the other up.
But pity anyone who falls
    and has no one to help them up.

I pray God moves us all "forward" into the next steps of our lives, together!

Encourage One Another, continuing the journey on fresh paths.
Blessings and love to you, xoxo, happy trails!