In forty five short minutes I will have moved forward into another year. I am turning 56 on this birthday. This golden birthday of being born in 1956 and turning 56. I am so many things all at once at the beginning of this fifty sixth year. I am fat. My chin is double, my hair much more gray, my feet less achy and my skin a little more lived in. I am delighted as I see the changes in myself both physical and mental. I like being older. I see wisdom in my gray hair, vision in my wrinkles, growth in the way I move through this lifetime. I am blessed because even as my body marches forth into my older years, I am still doing exactly what I love, being with the people I love and creating something from parts. I still am blessed to be able to draw and paint, knit and sew, craft and bead, silversmith and write. I am all that creativity brings me. All the joy that creativity inspires in me. I am a strong, visionary, fifty six year old woman ( 41 minutes and counting ) moving with love into my age. The things I have done are now the blessings in my life. My children are the jewels in the crown of my days, my artwork the velvet robes I drape myself in. Happy birthday me. I wonder what the twenty year old Lois would think of this Lois on her birthday. If only I knew then, what I know now... I'd be exactly here.

Growth as in solid, fantasy inspired trees.

Not quite fifty six and not wearing glasses.