Still Standing
"There's a dead end to my left, there's a burning bush to my right"
As I get older, I find that time stops standing still. When I turned sixteen and my dad taught me how to drive, we used to ride around the high school parking lot as practice for the highway (perhaps not the best way to practice going 65 mph on the NJ Turnpike). We'd pass the tennis courts and I would think to myself how cool it would be to drive myself to and from tennis practice each day in the Fall. It seemed like it took me forever to get my license. I waited 16 years for that document!
My birthday used to be a big event, sometimes even momentous. In 1998, the Yankees' David Wells pitched a perfect game on my birthday. The memory of that game is vivid in my mind as time seemed to stand still for nine innings. Years later, Wells handed me a baseball with his left hand as he exiting the Yankee bullpen. I stood motionless, speechless and stupefied in Monument Park as jealous onlookers stared at the scene. It felt like something out of a movie, only I wasn't able to watch it on screen. On my birthday in 2000, the series finale of my favorite TV show, Beverly Hills, 90210, aired. I savored every minute of the final show. I feel like I had so much time to waste back then. When would I be old enough to experience "real world" situations? (As it turns out, 90210 is nothing like the real world).
What a difference a year makes. What a difference two years makes. Two years ago on my birthday, I was meeting my mother-in-law and father-in-law for the first time. Today, I am raising their first grandbaby. Last year, I was recovering from surgery, laying in bed with a box of cookies and 90210 reruns. My husband and I were newlyweds, a family of two. I waited 30 years to meet the perfect man! Today our world not only centers around each other, but our adorable baby boy.
I spent most of my college birthdays studying and sitting for final exams. The semester would drag on for months only to end abruptly in a challenging 30 question multiple choice test.
I pass by a tennis court each day I go to work. There is never a soul around, never anyone playing on the lonely red court. It's a private neighborhood and seems like a privilege to start a match on their lone court. I wonder how many people have played there. I wonder where those people are today. Does time stand still for them? Does it stand still for anybody my age?
I can't predict what will happen this year. I can anticipate and speculate. I can pray and hope. I know my son will turn one in February and there will be a new face in the White house. I will probably make some new friends and lose touch with some of the old. And by this time next year, I will be ready to say hello to another birth year. The thing about birthdays is, it never matters where you are in life. It's one day out of the entire year to stand still.
"Was that you passing me by?"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qak_RGVERbc
