a good day

today was the last day of my life as a 42 year old.
and, at the risk of sounding like martha stewart, it was a good day.

alicia & jenn arrived at my door with birthday daisies & coffee first thing this morning.

we drove to the St. Jacob's market, where alicia got a plant.
{not this one, but one very similar}

the biggest pile of grapes i've ever seen.

some of my very favorite vegetables...

how could you not love all the vibrant color?

leaving the market

the cafe gardenia, where we had lunch.

after lunch, and a quick trip to the bakery, we drove home. then tonight, jenn, alicia, laura & erynne came over and we ate the chocolate & skor mousse{es?} from the bakery and watched the movie Amelie, which was set in paris and all en francais.

on the way home, i was telling the girls about a madeleine l'engle quote i had read about aging. it is so perfect, i believe i will read this quote on the eve of every birthday, just so i will always remember.

"i am still every age that i have been. Because i was once a child, i am always a child. because i was once a searching adolescent, given to moods and ecstasies, these are still part of me, and always will be... this does not mean that i ought to be trapped or enclosed in any of these ages...the delayed adolescent, the childish adult, but that they are in me to be drawn on; to forget is a form of suicide... far too many people misunderstand what 'putting away childish things' means, and think that forgetting what it is like to think and feel and touch and smell and taste and see and hear like a three-year-old or a thirteen-year-old or a twenty-three-year-old means being grownup. when i'm with these people, i, like the kids, feel that if this is what it means to be a grown-up, then i don't ever want to be one. instead of which, if i can retain a child's awareness and joy, and be fifty-one, then i will really learn what it means to be grownup." {madeleine l'engle}

as previously mentioned, it was a very good day. i am truly blessed to have these amazing women in my life.

good night. the next time i write, i will be able to add '43' to my growing list of ages.