Happy Birthday

Fall has always been a time of pondering and planning for me (it must have started when I was a school girl.)  This season, I am reflecting on the many milestones that have been achieved this year in my family.

For example, today is one of my daughters’ 25th birthday!  What a milestone – a quarter century on earth.  My oldest turned 30 this year, and since my youngest is 22, I am definitely the parent of adult children.  It’s great not to have to worry about what the kids are going to do all summer or what classes they’re going to take each semester. Even though they are grown, I’m still their cheerleader – just not their personal planner.

Yet since it’s a season of milestones for me, I find myself looking in the mirror and wondering if I’m a different person.  It is as if I am rediscovering the Me underneath the Mom.  It is exhilarating!  With all this freedom, I now have the chance to do things I’ve been putting off – I lost weight, and I’m learning to play the piano.   And of course, I’ve turned to the Library for books to guide me as I ponder these milestones in my life.

Fun without Dick and Jane : a guide to your delightfully empty nest / by Christie Mellor

Parenting your adult child : keeping the faith (and your sanity) / Susan Vogt

Parenting when your child is an adult / by Dale M. Jacobs and Renee Gordon Jacobs

How to raise your adult children : because big kids have even bigger problems / Gail Parent and Susan Ende

My nest isn’t empty, it just has more closet space : the amazing adventures of an ordinary woman / Lisa Scottoline and Francesca Scottoline Serritella

Driving with Plato : the meaning of life’s milestones / Robert Rowland Smith

The emotional calendar : understanding seasonal influences and milestones to become happier, more fulfilled, and in control of your life / John R. Sharp

The joy of ritual : spiritual recipes to celebrate milestones, ease transitions, and make every day sacred / Barbara Biziou

Going gray : what I learned about beauty, sex, work, motherhood, authenticity, and everything else that really matters / Anne Kreamer

Between a rock and a hot place : why fifty is not the new thirty / Tracey Jackson

 

Posted by Ruth Rose, a second floor librarian

Image credit: “Happy?” by Joe Shabotnik on Flickr

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