Today is my birthday. I don’t tell you this lightly. As a matter of fact, last year I didn’t even mention it because last year I turned the big FIVE-O. I’m embarrassed to admit it now, but I was so devastated and in such denial over that silly number that I refused to acknowledge it in any public way. But now that I’ve had a year to let the reality settle in, I see I did myself a disservice by allowing such a significant life milestone pass by without paying some sort of homage to it.
So here I am, a year later, ready to do what I should have done last year…reflect on turning fifty (plus 1) by sharing some of what that considerable span of time has taught me.
I share this as a birthday present to myself today….but my hope is that each of you will find at least one nugget of truth that resonates with you and causes you to reflect as well.
51 Reflections On Turning 50 + 1
I’ll start with one of my very favorite quotes:
1. “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” ~~Eleanor Roosevelt
2. Time and experience heals pain. Even if you are going through an overwhelmingly painful event in your life right now….one day it will be part of your past and not nearly as significant as it seems.
3. Keep moving. We must keep putting one foot in front of the other even when we hurt. If we don’t, we will never know what is waiting for us just around the bend.
4. Be the first to say you’re sorry.
5. Kindness matters. A lot. Being kind is more important than being right. Wherever there is a human being, there’s an opportunity for kindness.
6. Mother was right….everything seems worse at night. Our isolation and insignificance seem so much greater when everyone else is asleep. Try to rest and take comfort in the approaching sunrise.
7. Find ways of doing service. It’s some of the most rewarding experiences you will ever have. You come to love those you serve.
8. For better, or for worse….means just that. Probably the five words most taken for granted in the English language.
9. Forgiving yourself is FAR harder than forgiving someone else. And, I believe, it’s never complete.
10. When the chips are down (I mean REALLY down)…family is who will come through.
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11. Our background and circumstances may have influenced who we are, but we are responsible for who we become.
12. Comparison is the thief of joy. Don’t compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
13. “Do what you feel in your heart to be right – for you’ll be criticized anyway. You’ll be damned if you do, and damned if you don’t.” ~~Eleanor Roosevelt
14. Stop worrying…and start living! 99% of what we worry about WON’T EVER HAPPEN!
15. Choose happiness. Walk cheerfully on the face of the earth.
16. Let go of resentment. Holding a grudge is letting someone live rent-free in your head. KICK THEM OUT!
17. You don’t need everyone to like you. If the people closest to you love you, the ones who don’t, don’t matter.
18. Addiction is no respecter of persons. It will seek to destroy anyone who gets caught in its web.
19. Life is all about expectations. Stop expecting impossible perfection, in yourself and others.
20. NO ONE gets through this life without some trial. Everyone is fighting a battle of some kind.
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21. Goal-setting is overrated. Problem solving is underrated.
22. Debt ruins lives. Try to avoid it all cost.
23. Never send an email when you’re mad. If you want to write an angry e-mail, do it. Just don’t send it.
24. You can’t change people. You either have to accept people for who they are or not at all. There is very little gray area here.
25. Learn to embrace Change, even when it arrives with its companions, Fear and Uncertainty.
26. Giving is better than getting. If you continually give, you will continually have.
27. Gratitude is the best way to find contentment. Personally I don’t think there is any way to find contentment without gratitude. It takes our focus off what we don’t have and onto what we do have.
28. Learn the art of empathy and practice it. Never underestimate the power of a smile, a kind word, or a listening ear.
29. On being a parent….stay out of the way of your kids becoming the amazing people they are. It’s more harmful to overparent than to underparent.
30. Everyone yearns for validation, love, security, enjoyment and a better future.
31. Live in the now. Don’t let yesterday use up today.
32. Live by example. Personal example carries much more weight than preaching.
33. You can’t buy happiness. Everything that is wonderful about life doesn’t cost a penny. A long walk, a hug, spending time with a good friend are all free.
34. You can’t please everyone! If you share something with enough people, you will upset someone, no matter what. That’s their problem, not yours.
35. Mistakes are how we learn. Failures are the stepping stones to success.
36. Wear sunscreen.
37. No matter how lonely you might feel, there is always someone who can relate to you. Perhaps you can’t talk to them right now, but they are out there.
38. Flowers and gardening are medicine for the soul.
39. Passionate love is overrated. Seek a mate whose values and background echo your own.
40. Relationships are messy because life is challenging. A conflict doesn’t mean the relationship has to come to an end.
41. No one is in charge of your happiness except you. Not your parents, not your spouse. You.
42. Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and family will. Stay close.
43. However bad a situation is, you will get through it, one way or another.
44. Trust your gut instinct. It will be right 99% of the time.
45. Sometimes all you can do is B R E A T H E.
46. Failures are only lessons. So never regret anything that has happened in your life. Take it all as lessons learned and move on with grace.
47. The best is yet to come.
48. Experience is the greatest teacher of all.
49. This wise prayer….”God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”
50. Find your passion. Discovering something you love to do has an amazing effect on your entire life.
51. I have a lot left to learn. Life still has many lessons left to teach me, and I’m looking forward to them all.
I want to thank each of you for being here to celebrate with me today….and every day! The community that this website represents truly is one of my proudest accomplishments, and one that wouldn’t exist without all of you incredible people!
Do you have a saying that resonates with you?
My sixty-sixth birthday was yesterday. Sometimes it just is hard to take being older. As I watch my little mother as she is in her last days I realize that we should look forward to all the the Lord has for us at any age. I love my children & grandchildren and wouldn’t trade this time of my life with anyone.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Happy Birthday!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Hi, I am 50 +1 too. I tell everyone that your birthday is the anniversary of when the Lord sent you here. It is a blessed day to rejoice. Thank you for today’s blog, and may it keep us inspired. Happy Blessed Birthday, Jillee.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.An amazing list, I will save it and reread often!! Have a wonderful birthday and a special year to come!!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Happy Birthday, hope you have a wonderful day! Thank you for all your hard work on your blog. I enjoy reading and learning from it everyday.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I will be 80 this year and I am grateful to be here. Many much younger people have not been so fortunate. Life is GOOD
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Happy Birthday! I hope you have a blessed day.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Happy Birthday Jillee! I too skipped right over turning 50. Kept in “on the down-low” as they say. I don’t regret doing that, but would’ve loved to throw myself a kick-ass party. Maybe for 50+10! Hope your day is as wonderful and special as you are!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Happy Birthday, Jillee! I hope you find that you are indeed like fine wine, you only get better with age. My 66th birthday was yesterday, but I’m celebrating tonight with my family.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Happy Birthday! Awesome words of reflection! Love your site!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Happy Happy Birthday to you ! I enjoyed your ‘list’. Think of all the people who invite you into their lives and embrace you. It is special, and such ‘a good thing’ Enjoy what you have, who you are, and life’s lessons.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Again happy birthday…remember..the alternative is unacceptable !
I am 53 and I am so lusky and thankful for every year I got.I lost a very good friend last sunday
Please log in or create a free account to comment.he was only 44 and have 3 young child. He will never has chance to be shame over his age.
I know so many young people around me,who have died last 5 year.
We should be proud over our age exspecially when we look so good as Jillie does.
Sorry for me poor english.
Ella
Happy Birthday!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JILLEE!!! Loved the 51 things you listed . . . . I am going to copy them . . . if that is ok . . . post them at my desk, in my bathroom at home, and share them with tons of people! I had my 51st birthday 11 years ago and you know what . . . IT IS JUST A NUMBER! And look at all the knowledge you have accumulated during that time! Love your blog . . . cannot wait to read it everyday . . . . and I save a lot of the articles . . . well worth saving. So, have a wonderfully blessed day and make your 51st birthday MEMORABLE!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Happy Birthday!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.For some reason hitting 30 was the hardest birthday for me to swallow. I don’t sweat the numbers any more. My Grandmother always told me that “any day on this side of the dirt is a good day.”
Happy Birthday Jillee!!!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Happy Birthday & thank you so much for the list of amazing & powerful words of wisdom!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Happy birthday Jillee, I will be 68 in a few weeks and I always say getting older is better than the alternative. I intend to add some more to your list and then share it with my family on my birthday. May the coming years be filled with much love, laughter and good health. Thanks for all you do to make our lives and the world better.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Happy birthday, Jillee! I turn 40 + 1 on Saturday. I had such a difficult time last year, much the same as you. I cried and thought my life was over. I was wrong. I plan on being a “big girl” about the whole thing this year. Your list is fabulous. It’s a keeper!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Liked your post. Age is mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.
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Hi, Jillee! I found your blog about six months ago. I love it and I love your attitude towards life. I turned 50+1 in August and I also am in recovery. It’s been just about four years since I hit the bottom and straightened out my act. Seeing your positive attitude and openness about your addiction is very helpful for people like myself. I have never hid my addiction (as with most – everyone knew I had it before I did!) but I must admit that these past four years have been the BEST in my life.
No kidding!
As I read your quotes I see many of my favorites there. I think people underestimate the importance of positive thinking. About three years ago, I began blogging too, and I have a really decent following in the woodworking and decorative painting industries (I am a designer and work with a woodworking magazine as well as a painting magazine as a contributing editor). I receive so many positive notes from those who follow. Today I posted my 965th blog! (Who would ever think that I had all that writing in me??) I blog almost every day and only miss occasionally. When I do, people come looking for me. I think that on the low days (there aren’t many anymore!) it keeps me coming back. There is nothing like keeping positive people around you to keep you revved up.
Anyway – I am sorry I ramble. But I just want you to know what a great difference you make in other’s lives.
Thank you for taking the time to write. You are definitely someone I admire and look up to.
You are AWESOME! :)
Happy Birthday!!! :D
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Great post! Age is relative…..
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“❤♫❤♫❤.•*¨`*•..¸♥☼♥ ¸.•*¨`*•.♫❤♫❤♫❤
Happy Birthday, Jillee! Not only are you a fab & fun 50 +1, you are also very wise! Love your post!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Happy Happy Birthday Jillee! What a beautiful post! I am definitely printing it out.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.For some reason my age doesn’t bother me but my kids age does!! For instance I simply can NOT have a daughter who is 22. That is impossible. (Granted I am 42, haha that should not be) But my birthday? No big deal. Her birthday? I freak out. Lol
Great list! Only one disagreement. Anyone who says you can’t buy happiness has never bought (or paid the adoption fee for) a puppy! ;-)
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I love this comment! :) so true
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