We all have many chapters in our lives based on the experiences and lessons we collect along life's journey. At birth, we're a clean slate, ready to create the unique imprint we'll make on the world. How our chapters are written depends on the direction of our sails. Light or heavy winds are often unpredictable.

Today I turn 60. Unlike Barbie, who debuted the month after I was born, I am not unchanged. I'm a product of my environment and every choice I've made. I'm grounded by the values and friendships I established in my formative years and the ones I collected along the way.

Age never bothered me. As the youngest child of three, I'm guessing the status of my being a sexagenarian is surreal to my family. But honestly, as Abraham Lincoln famously said:

And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years.  

What tugs at my heart on this birthday are the things I haven't done, the places I've never seen and the experiences I'd love to have. Someone recently told me to just do it! Easier said than done. Time, work, managing illness and money are four things that come to mind.

• I yearn to travel to Germany to the town of my father's birth. I want to walk the streets where he ran and played as a boy before a monster forced his family to flee. I want to visit the house where he was born, the one my great-grandfather built and remarkably still stands today.
• I want to visit the national parks I haven't yet visited, travel to parts of Europe, Australia, and Africa and revisit Israel.
• I want to swim with dolphins, snorkel in turquoise water on exotic islands, and volunteer at an elephant sanctuary.
• I dream of attending a Turner Classic Movies Film Festival in Hollywood. Classic films are my obsession. Unfortunately, older film stars who've appeared in the past are gone. Who will be left when I'm finally able to go?
• I want to finally be able to move to a warmer climate, one where I don't have to brave harsh winter temperatures that wreak havoc on my MS.

Time passes in the blink of an eye, and what's certain is that life moves forward. People come in and out of your life, some by circumstance, others by death. The ones you miss are gone forever but never from your heart.

And so I move on to the next chapters of my life. My mind is singularly focused that the best years are still in front of me.

Let's all keep hope in our hearts that life will be good, always filled with a little magic. Think positive thoughts. Be kind. Pay it forward. Stay social. Be as physically active as possible. Move forward despite obstacles. Be courageous. Fight fear. Live the best life within your abilities. Remember your blessings. Be grateful. 

So Happy 60th to the high school graduating class of 1977! We've faced our share of joys and sorrow, hurdles and accomplishments but we made it through. We're champions for surviving six decades. I wish all of you many chapters of light and love, with the hope that you live a sweet and happy life.

I'll let the words of Freddie Mercury's 1977 hit song end this post for me. He said it best about all of us:

ONE LAST THOUGHT ON AGING FROM MARIA POPOVA:
But who is the person staring back at us from the mirror as the decades roll by? The mystery of what makes you and your childhood self the same person despite a lifetime of changes is, after all, one of the most interesting questions of philosophy. Perhaps the greatest perplexity of aging is how to fill with gentleness the void between who we feel we are on the inside and who our culture tells us is staring back from that mirror. ~ Maria Popova in her extraordinary Brain Pickings on "Grace Paley on the Art of Growing Older."