Today I am 50. Getting here wasn’t as scary as when I was approaching 30 and 40 but, as always, it felt good to finally arrive. The journey to this place was always unplanned, at least consciously. Perhaps my love of music has been my centre and organising principle.
With each passing decade a greater calmness and feeling of being grounded arises, leaving behind the neuroses and anxieties of youth. It really does get better although when you are young you cannot imagine how! All those things we thought were so important fade to insignificance. All those things we were worried we wouldn’t be able to do with age now feel irrelevant.
The downside to age is the physical deteriation. Like cheap Chinese products we weren’t meant to last. The components of our body gradually fall apart and I’ve noticed my eyesight is not so sharp. It also becomes apparent that the remaining years are less than those already enjoyed. Dealing with the transience of life is an uncomfortable part of our existence but it should teach us to love life even more. Life is not a testing ground or a waiting room. This is the real deal!
My goal now is to become more fearless and to engage even more with life. I love where I am in my head, I love being in Ghana, I love my friends and family and I love life. Please join me in my celebration.
Happy birthday, dear Graham! 50!? really? Thanks for letting us, the youth, understand life gets better as it progresses…And may you have a wonderful day without any church-noise! Miss you!
Happy Birthday, Graham. Fearless! You want to become more fearless. .I too want to become more fearless at 65 and it just doesn’t feel right. I too love life in Ghana and I am fearful that if I am fearless I will lose it. Again have a great day with friends and family.
Have a more than happy birthday and congrats on being around this long. Here’s to the next 50
Enjoy your birthday, Graham, and get some nice celebration to mark the day. According to Amadou Hampate Ba (Mali), tradition has it that at 50 you’re still on your way to the top, becoming who you really are. It’s maybe around mid-sixties that we reach our maximum, and even after that the way down can be mild and slow, as they calculate it up to 120 years
So enjoy what you’ve reached already and keep being curious for what’s ahead! Life is what happens while we’re hoping and striving for our dreams to get real…Best wishes
Praise the Lord.
Happy birthday Graham and congratulations to your “real deal”! Sounds encouraging and inspiring and I can not imagine that slightly fading eyesight can stop you from further expansion of your activities! Have a wonderful day and a melodic evening
Have a great day, Graham, full of cheer and laughter and i will be there tonight.
Happy birthday Graham and thanks for sharing with us young carbon shoots of life! You are already brave, as you are a genuine guy who speaks his mind freely. Enjoy your big day and Ghana! Seeing as you want to be even more brave, you should go to a chop-bar and order fufu and eat all of it, to complete your transformation to Ghanaian adulthood.
Belated Birthday wishes Graham, you don’t look 50. Hope you had a brilliant one!
Thanks very much – I had a nice one!
Lovely sentiment, Graham. Here’s to many fearless years to come!
Thanks Fiona.
Happy belated birthday, Graham. Great personality you are. Continue going strong.
Happy belated birthday, Graham. Great personality you are. Continue going strong and doing the things you love to do best.