
Birthday eve drinks... the Gin Fizz on the right took the prize
They say 40 is the new 30 and even though I have no idea who “they” are, I’m totally going with it since that puts me at 32 now and I like the sounds of that. Seriously, if someone gave me the choice of a million dollars or ten years, I’d take the years. (If you up that to 10 million, I’d have to think about it harder.)
Age isn’t something I ever thought about much… until I turned 40. Then everything started getting weird. College students suddenly looked really young, and I was older than a lot of people, and I needed more sleep and extra moisturizer. Gray hairs were making an entrance and muscle tone didn’t stick around as long. How had this snuck up on me?
When you have kids, I think you measure time differently. They change so fast, and you watch them go from one stage to another. When you’re childless, life can look more or less the same at 35 as it did at 25, give or take some lessons learned and (hopefully) wisdom gained.
I’m usually mistaken for being younger — sometimes much younger – than my age. Not a bad problem to have, however there is a downside: People think you’re super smart and wise “for being such a youngster,” when really you’re just hopelessly behind everyone else in your peer group. You don’t want to point out the error, yet you do because you feel like a bit of a fraud.
I’m convinced that looking young — at least in my case — is 60% genetic, 30% eating well and staying active, and 10% positive attitude. But aging comes for even the youthful looking, and it poses challenges. It’s hard to celebrate getting older in a culture obsessed with youth and physical perfection. We no longer live in a society — at least in North America — where elders are revered. Age can bring wonderful things — wisdom, compassion, confidence, freedom, grace, knowledge, depth, character, honesty. But when it comes down to it, we get the message that if we don’t look like a 22 year-old air-brushed magazine cover, we’re not quite cutting it. How many millions of dollars are spent on cosmetic surgeries and procedures each year to stay looking young? I’m all for looking good, but it’s really gotten out of control.
What I’m trying to get at… in a long-winded way… is that we get to choose how we approach aging. We — me, in this case — can complain and try to deny it, or be grateful for it — yes, grateful! — and seize the day.
I wasted time in my younger years because it seemed like I had forever. But I know now that I didn’t — and I don’t. Sure, there are some things you can’t rush or make happen, but there is never enough time to stay stuck or to live as though you have endless days.
I’m really grateful to have been given 42 years of life. I’m richly blessed in more ways than I can count. And this is what I need to celebrate every birthday — another year granted to me by God, another 12 months of blessings and growth and experiences. I would really like to age in a way that helps others — especially younger women — to not be afraid of it, to even look forward to it, and to have a sense of humor along the way. And I want to stop lamenting at what an old mom I’m going to be and focus on what’s great about becoming parents later in life.
As for my birthday, I had a fabulous day. Brian took a break from his regular Saturday work and study schedule to spend the day with me. (He’s the best.) We stopped by the Basilica to drop off a gift for the “giving tree” (presents for people in need) and spent some time in prayer.
December 12th is the feast day of the Virgin of Guadalupe, who is considered the Patroness of the Americas as well as the Patroness of Life… and Zoe is the word for supernatural life (in Greek), so it’s kind of fitting that we share the same day. (It would be even more fitting if I was Mexican… but surely it counts that I like Mexican food.) This image of Our Lady of Guadalupe is located in the crypt of the Basilica:

If you don’t know the story of the Virgin of Guadalupe, here’s how it goes… Back in the 1500’s an indigenous peasant man named Juan Diego was waking to church when a woman appeared to him near Tepayac hill. She looked like a young native woman, but he believed her to be the Virgin Mary. She asked him to tell the bishop to build a church in that very spot. After the bishop dismissed the story and said he needed a sign, Juan Diego went back to the hill where he saw the woman again and told her what happened. She asked him to gather roses from the hillside and present them to the bishop. (There were normally no roses at that time of year.) Juan Diego gathered the flowers in his cloak (or tilma) and went back to the bishop. When he opened his cloak to reveal the flowers, there was an intricate image of the lady he had seen imprinted on his tilma.
There are holes in the legend, and controversies, but needless to say, the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe has been revered for centuries and the tilma is on display at the Cathedral in Mexico City — one of the top three most visited Christian pilgrimage sites in the world. Most Hispanics, especially Mexicans, have a deep devotion to the Virgin of Guadalupe. The tilma image is fascinating as it contains a great deal of symbolism, and the young Aztec-looking woman seems to be wearing pregnancy garb.
After the Basilica, Brian and I went to a favorite indoor market and had the best brunch ever. Food seems to play a big role in any good day of mine and thankfully Brian is the same. We spent a couple hours Christmas shopping, and later in the evening Brian took me to my favorite special occasion restaurant in Baltimore — a place we haven’t been to for years. We always surprise each other for our birthday dinners and this is exactly where I hoped we’d go.
I need to tell you about my birthday cake! Mags and I spied this recipe at our favorite food blog and deemed it my birthday cake for this year. We forgot to note just how expensive and involved it all was, but doggone it, we were determined. And we rocked it! Here’s us with the finished product, just before sharing it with friends Friday night after cocktails:

That’s called Cappuccino Fudge Cheesecake. And it’s the reason I was awake that night until 2:30AM.