I turn(ed) 66 on December 16, 2024. I read somewhere recently that in just 66 years humankind went from the first flight at Kitty Hawk to the moon. I then as I am wont to do, looked up first flight. It was 17 December 1903. The first moon landing was 20 July 1969. So it was actually 5 months shy of 66 years.
I feel at times my years are passing excruciatingly slow, like the hours and days and weeks that led up to those few moments on the sand in NC must have seemed to the Wright brothers. Then, it is though I merely blinked and went from 9 in 1967, as I was in this picture:
to this, taken just a few weeks ago:
I see little of 9 year-old in 66 year-old Ellen, but all of those memory Polaroids and Super-8s from my life are the milestones and wee pebbles along my life's journey.
I never thought I would see and do some things I have experienced, and yet there was so much I reached for that never came to be.
Marriages, childbirth, too many deaths. So many jobs, so many satisfied impulses and missed opportunities. Is this the end, then? A swansong, a final act, the beginning of the ending?
Lord, I hope not.
The 10 days preceeding and 10 days following the winter solstice are called the Halcyon Days, a time out of time. I like that. Inside, I have often felt a person out of time, out of step or sync. An intellectual Benjamin Buttons. When I was the age of 9 I was prone to seek out the company of the older adults in my neighborhood. I would "visit" with them often. I loved hearing their stories of the past, looking at momentous and photos. Like an old woman in a little girl's brain wanting to remember what was...
I have a good life and am looking forward to seeing what the next decades bring me!
