That’s the number I hit yesterday.
I’m no longer in my early to mid 40s. I’m now very deeply entrenched in my mid 40s. (Not that I’ve ever really used those terms anyway.)
I had a great day with friends and family. It began with some time with our little family of four. Pauline, Emily, James and me. It ended at home in the same way.
On Tuesday last week I got a call asking me to fill in as ‘preacher’ on Sunday morning. I was happy to accept and enjoyed spending some time talking about some lessons from the Old Testament book of Habakkuk.
From there it was time for lunch and then a trip to catch up with some of my family. One of my brothers had invited us to spend the afternoon at their place.
We had some time to kill before we were due at my brother’s house so we took a drive to the coast and enjoyed seeing the waves rolling in with considerable force. We then travelled along the coast and headed towards the house where I spent the first 16 years of my life.
I was surprised to see the old place still there. Whoever owns it now would be able to improve it very quickly with a bulldozer. It’s been empty for years and the yard is overgrown. It’s an old asbestos place. My estimations would put it at around 52 years old.
That old place might be falling apart now but it was the place where so many memories were created. We parked at the front of the house and as we sa in the car I enjoyed telling Emily and James a little bit about my life there as a kid. I pointed out my bedroom window and the place under the house where I built my cubby and where I created my own ‘radio station’ when I was around their age.
After a lot of remeniscing we headed off to my brother’s place for afternoon tea before headng home for a delicious take away curry and a movie.
I love looking back and telling the old stories. There’s something in those old stories that reinforces who I was and who I’ve become but even more than that, the past can say ‘this is who I was but I’ve moved on’. There’s great hope in that because it says that I don’t have to stay who I am now. I can keep moving forward. I’m not stuck in that little green house being a son and a sibling, I’m now a husband and a father enjoying a life I could never have imagined back there. Life is good right now and there are so many reasons to look ahead to what’s to come.
Do you enjoy thinking about the past? Do you ever visit some of the places you remember as a kid? Do you ever find yourself yearning for those early years or are you looking ahead for the wonderful times ahead?
Posted by Rodney Olsen
Technorati Tags: Remeniscing – Birthdays – 44
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love birthdays. If you were closer I’d buy you an ice cream cake. 🙂
I knew it was your B’day, Jill dobbed didn’t she! I wished you a happy day on my blog yesterday too.
Brian did the same with the kids, he grew up in Claremont and the house is also still standing, they kids enjoyed seeing it and his old school although Hollywood high is now demolished.
You drove up the coast and didn’t pop in for tea? tsk tsk tsk
Next time!!
Happy Birthday to you too! I have found my “triplet” now 🙂
I see you are from Perth. I have been there a long time ago – I think it was in 1993. Things have changed since then?
happy birthday!
Happy Birthday old man. I think the kids really enjoy that sense of history as well. Helps connect them with a bigger story.
Happy birthday from here, too 🙂
I´m regularly at the place I grew up since my family still lives there. Would be a strange thought if the house belonged to somebody else or would be abandoned…
Happy Birthday!
Many happy returns of the day 🙂
I usually find myself looking back with mixed thoughts – and given our progress through the adoption process am also looking nervously and excitedly towards the future now…
Happy Birthday Rodney. Glad you had a great day!
Many happy returns and enjoy being in your mid forties 😉
I love returning to places I used to visit as a kid and have fond memories of. I’m a bit nostalgic like that.
Happy Birthday Rodney!
Thank you all so much for your wonderful birthday wishes. I had a fabulous day with my family and surprisingly, I don’t really feel all that much older. 🙂
Happy Birthday to a fellow July-baby!
(mine was the 10th)
Best wishes for a wonderful year!
Katie(bod)
I’m catching up on my blog reading: happy birthday.
Once a year I visit my town of birth.
It is in Quebec, Canada. Now, I live in Ontario,Canada.
It takes 10 to 11 hours to drive there, but it’s worth the trip.
As far as wishing to be back in the past, it’s only when I think of my childhood with my family. Sometimes, I wish I was still in that period of time.
Marie