The Princess and the Frog

So happy birthday to me. I woke up around 3:00 this morning to a thunderstorm. “They” say that rain at wedding is good luck…well, it rained on my wedding day…I think they meant: rain on your birthday means that the year in store will be a good one. In fact, let’s make it so. I will. Isn’t that what Princess’ do?

And then the frog. So on my way to yoga, I noticed a frog blocking my path out. Not in the sense that it was just so large that I couldn’t pass, but I don’t like to “hurt nature” as Blythe puts it, so I had to help it along the way, so that I didn’t squish it. So, I talked to it and did a little dance to get it on its way. Really cute, but you had to be there. So I consulted my handy dandy reference book, “Animal Speak” by Ted Andrews. Regarding frogs: transition through water and sound. Its voice is said to bring on the rain; rain makes things grow. It is a symbol of coming into one’s own creative power. So after my dance, the frog moved enough to be out of dangers’ way and then yoga was imminent. Before my 9:30 class, I decide to do a bit of cycling…get the cardio in as I’m no longer 20. At the gym, I had a conversation with a beautiful 75-year-old woman from Madrid who hurt her ankle by showing off to her neighbor’s kids playing soccer.  And please note that even with the wrapped ankle, she was still in the gym and cycling. I felt like she was sent with a message just for me as I’ve seen her numerous times, but we’ve never really spoken and her ankle has been intact when I’ve seen her before. She opened up with an eagerness to share that caught me off guard as I sat cycling next to her with one earplug, unplugged and music blaring in the other. But I heard her message: don’t ever stop, and keep going no matter what the burden. She shared her story about how her American husband moved her here despite her family’s objections and her love of soccer.

Know and keep being me, and it will serve me well as it has her; a soccer playing, fun loving, beautiful and spirited woman. Who am I at …my age?

Happy birthday, me.