simple, yet most precious, gifts

I was gifted yesterday morning when I woke with a calm breeze, clear sky and the last full moon of 2013 low against a pretty pink sky... and enough time to appreciate the sunrise and moonset from the beach before the wind picked up.

First rays

Sunrise dance

While the moon rolls down Constantiaberg..

As the year draws to the turning point of the summer solstice, marking the end of my fourth decade breathing the air of this planet, my mind turns to thoughts about the decade that is starting for me; where I am now compared to where I was when I turned 30; what I thought I wanted for my life and what I believed I could have; how what I received was beyond my wildest imaginings (which, I realise now, were not very wild and hardly imagined!); and how much I grew... and I find myself getting a sense of a smattering of some the places (both internal and external) that I could possibly journey though from here, and I look forward to it with my same "things always work out" attitude, although flavoured slightly differently and infused more generously with appreciation...

Life, as the oldies always told me, is indeed short, and although I've been realising that this getting old thing happens to all of us, I've also come to realise that all the oldies (regardless of age) are actually just youngsters in well used bodies. So, here's to another decade of growing younger and wiser with age, for all of us!

May you all have a superb solstice this Saturday!

(Oh, and just for fun, I went and checked out what my birthday word is, a word that was born the same year I was, and it turns out to be:

recyclist, n.
Meaning: an advocate of the recycling of waste products; a recycler.

I totally love it, it's certainly a word for me!
You can find your own birthday word by Oxford Dictionaries at OED birthday word generator.)