It’s been 21,916 days. That calculates out to 3,131 weeks, or 525,984 hours, or over 31 million minutes or about 1.9 billion seconds. And in case you aren’t a math wizard, I’m simply talking about the 60 years and 1 day since I was born. Yesterday I celebrated six decades of air flowing in and out of my lungs. It was my sixtieth birthday.
All of us except my wife Linda (behind camera) and our 4 month old twins (already in bed).
After burping our four-month old twin grand babies in the morning, I spent five plus birthday hours driving from Jacksonville back to my home in Cape Coral, Florida. Then, I picked up some new prescription sunglasses, went out to eat dinner with my wife and came home, unpacked and read through several hundred birthday greetings on Facebook. Life is good!
I know. You must think I live a boring life! I didn’t celebrate the changing of a decade in a big way. Actually, my wife is about nine months behind me in age and we do the big celebrations of the decades and half-decades around her birthday: sky-diving, para-gliding, hot-air balloon rides, hang-gliding, bungee jumping, whitewater rafting and more! We really do love to live on the edge! Next summer we plan to hang-glide in the Swiss Alps and sky dive again in Florida! Life is good!
My birthday weekend was actually spent doing what is most important in life—connecting with my family. All our three adult children, their spouses and our four grandchildren gathered in Jacksonville for the weekend. We spent a part of the weekend making memories together in the oldest city in America—St. Augustine. We took horse-drawn carriage rides, visited the oldest fort in America, and took a magical outdoor stroll to enjoy the over-the-top holiday lights accenting this historic city. And then we enjoyed some birthday cake together. It was a wonderful weekend creating a legacy! Life is good!
Yesterday as I drove home, I reflected on the decade of my 50’s. It was a monumental decade. The last two of our children found their spouses and married. Our four grandchildren were born. I engineered and executed a leadership succession plan for the church that I founded. I started this blog as one medium for living out my personal mission of inspiring transformissional living in others. I launched my Gingerich PhotoArt website. I wrote a proposal and was awarded a significant grant for a four-month sabbatical during 2014. And, so much more. Life is good!
As I look forward to my 60’s, I’m anticipating that the best is yet to come! Many great leaders have found their 60’s to be their most productive, effective and fulfilling years. Laura Ingalls Wilder’s best-selling series began with “Little House in the Big Woods” at age 64. Benjamin Franklin signed the Declaration of Independence as he was turning 70. Nelson Mandela became President of South Africa at age 76. Mother Teresa received the Nobel Peace Price at age 69. And Ray Kroc finally got the McDonald’s fast-food chain up and running as a franchised business just as he entered his 60’s.
My cousin Dean Gingerich, who is 3 months older than I, just sent me this in a birthday email from his home in Montana, “We had a fellow at church give a 2 day seminar on jobs (learning to love your work). It is a statistical fact that a man’s most productive decade is his 60’s, followed by the 50’s and lastly the 70’s. So we still have 20 good years ahead of us.” I’ve repeatedly observed this to be true.
Life is good! I’m anticipating much fruitfulness over the next years. I’m leveraging my first half success for second-half significance and I’m inspiring others toward transformissional living! Life is good!
QUESTION: What is one thing you are looking forward to in your next decade? I’d love to hear it in the comment section below.
3 responses to Life is Good!