As my 62nd birthday approaches...
I will again be celebrating my 31st.
With familiar gratitude.
And with God's hopeful blessing.

'You'll be 62!
Not 31.
Get real! '

I look at it this way...
When I arrived at 60?
I felt as if I had won a championship.
With some wonderful memories.
And being with both my parents...
When their separate deaths approached.
And thinking of them as if they were my children,
I had to protect.
To hear them say I love you...
And other things they to me confessed,
Was a divine time.

Don't get me wrong...
I'm not wishing to stop time,
Or wish to travel back into it!

I cried like a baby when I turned 31.
Call me what you wish.
But I had done my patriotic thing.
And I was in and out of the military,
Ten years 'prior' before I did this.
Married, divorced AND experienced with a profession.
And unafraid to ask or answer any question.
Yet...
31 felt as if I had lived a lifetime.
Until I became 61 and felt younger.
How?
Hey...
It was my first time at it.

However...
31 was my turning point.
That's why I celebrate it.
And with God's blessing...
It will be my 31st anniversary of finding myself.
And having the peace of mind at 62...
To say and do as I please.
Within reason.
And with God's approval!

Plus...
I can say I've earned the right to be 62.
And 'any' and every age below it!
How about you?

Lawrence S. Pertillar

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/62/