Symbols

This week is my 49^th birthday. I can’t believe I am going to be 49. On one hand, I am glad to be 49 (I lost a friend to breast cancer when we were 36). On the other hand, 49 means a lot of time has passed!

Some folks tell me I don’t look 49. What does 49 look like?

Recently, I was talking with my friend and art muse, Judith Cassell-Mamet (www.jcmamet.net) about my new “journal for my birthday” ritual. For years I would get a new black and white composition book for doodling and collecting ideas. Then I met Judith and Tamara (another friend and awesome creative muse) and they taught me how to make my own journals.

Making a journal is pretty easy: Take any size paper you’d like and decoupage anything you want on it. Grab a stack of printer paper and head to the nearest copy store. Ask them to laminate the decoupaged piece of paper and bind it with the printer paper. Viola’! A journal that means something to YOU.

As such, I was pondering what this birthday’s journal cover would be. Given my obsession with the number 49, I decided to take this year and make it the year of numbers. Combined with my interest in using my camera more often, I was looking forward to seeing how those numbers appear in the world around me.

The crazy thing is that the moment I said this out loud to Judith (she was driving), I looked out the car window and there on the street were 4 cymbals sitting in front of a Jazz bar. 4. I took them to be a “symbol” and have put this picture on the cover of my new birthday book.

Then I realized that this moth is 8/11. And my birthday is 8/11! Nothing to do with 4 and 9, but kinda cool in the number realm.

I always say my husband is the numbers guy. Maybe this year, as I get more comfortable with looking for numbers, I’ll learn how to balance my checkbook, too. OK, maybe I’ll just take it one number at a time.

It’s all fun. And it’s all just a number. What really matters is how you feel. And I feel 36.

What’s your MindFULL age vs the number of the birthday coming up? Let us know!