Medicare!!!!!!!!!!

I have reached the age of Medicare.  

It is rather traumatic, it comes with certain images of an older person.  My mind has protected me from believing that I would ever be an person that was that old.  When did it happen?  Did I fall asleep and dream this age, how could have all these years gone by without me noticing?

Oh, I admit, my body has shown me the reality of my life, my knees are new, my eyes have had cataracts repaired, my hair is getting grey and I have distinct wrinkles on my face.  All of these things still did not prepare me for getting my Medicare card.  I was shocked, felt a weight in the pit of my stomach and put the card on the bottom of a pile of things to worry about later.  It didn't go away.  My 65th Birthday has come and gone.

Cynthia DeRemer McDonald, the uncut version,
no makeup, grey hair and a smile
of happiness.

I need to change the way I am thinking about all of this, I need to turn this into a positive thing or I will sit in a rocking chair and just get older.  Today I will share the most wonderful things living this life, of 65 years, has blessed me with.

I grew up in a time of innocence, two party phone lines, bicycles were horses, I lived in the country and loved being outside.  I had animals to teach me responsibility, I grew up with a brother and sister as my playmates, I went to a small school and came from a class of 55 graduating seniors.  I learned that if I did something wrong there were consequences, I was spanked when I was young and grounded as a teen.  I learned to respect elders and listen to adults even if I didn't agree.

I loved my donkey and horse above all, had a really hard time sharing them as they were suppose to be for all the kids in the family.  I learned to drive a stick shift Dodge Dart, white with red interior.  I loved playing hide an seek with the neighbor kids after dark in the summer.  I loved the smell of dairy cows, fresh cut hay and corn tasseling in August.  I loved skating on the pond in winter, being pulled on a sled when it snowed behind a jeep on country roads and I remember cutting wood for our wood furnace.  

I love my friends from high school and am thrilled we are all still in contact today.  I loved being in 4-H for thirteen years, it is where I met my wonderful husband.  I loved 4-H camp every summer and the county fair.  This was my social life growing up!

I fell in love and married the most wonderful man in the world and we have spent 45 years being married this June.  We had three wonderful children and now six wonderful grandchildren.  I believe that while raising children my life started picking up speed.  Meanwhile I continued to ride horses, that obsession never changed or wavered.

I was a stay at home mom until the children were older, then worked awhile here or there, never really knowing what it was I wanted to be when I grew up.  All the while I was growing up, I was gathering knowledge and hoarding it away until at the age of fifty, I decided I wanted to become an "Artist".   I began to put all my knowledge into creating gourd art and taking my art to shows around Ohio and Indiana.

Because of gourds and my desire to sell to the world and a little stumble in my path, I became immersed in the culture of the indigenous American people.  My life changed again, I began to play the Native American flute.  That single event exploded with the journey of new friends and learning and following the red road. 

The latest journey has been finding my birth father and his second family.  My fathers passing has left a deep loss in my soul and the blessing was finding my DeRemer family and connecting the circle of my life and my family history.  Their love and acceptance has been an overwhelming experience.

My adventuresome life has continued, I have no horses to ride now, but we do have the most wonderful Harley Trike Motorcycle.  The need to travel and explore has never left me, my age has never taken that away, I am loving life to the fullest and feel very blessed!

So I guess when I finally got to the end of this page and know today I am sixty five, I have lived a life of learning, adventures, gratitude, and most of all love.  It isn't so bad being this age, I do everything I want to do, I live each moment with gratitude and I remain open to the next wonderful thing to come my way!