pull up a chair

sometimes the most important job around the house is getting all the parts over the bumps. even when the bumps come with zeroes attached. which would be the bump at our house today.
one of the parts, one sleeping upstairs, will wake up with a brand new zero this morning. he will lug it around all year, and for a few days here it might take some getting used to. some breaking in. it might feel a bit odd, might cloud the windshield.
i tell you, it sure wasn’t pretty watching it coming. you would have thought someone swallowed a fly around here.
which would be why i–the designated old lady–must step forth and do my part to ease the pain.
so today i speak up in defense of zeroes. especially when they come right after the 9s on the odometer doodad. especially when they mean a new decade is entered.
except for the first three, maybe (and by that, of course, i mean the 00s, the 10s and the 20s), nary a decade comes without at least a bit of a bump. (and come to think of it, i’ve not met a birth that’s bump-free, so let’s whittle it down to the 10s and the 20s that even dare to come easy.)
unless, that is, you are like little old me, who, so far, has not met a decade i didn’t reach out and latch onto.
i, like a snowball, feel little friction rolling along the gritty ol’ landscape of years, picking up layers, taking my digits however they come. it’s either that, or melt under the december sun, the way i see it. and i’d rather not make like a puddle. not yet, anyway.
i say bring on the years. bring on the reasons to breathe, the reasons to hold my breath, too. bring on the tingles of stories too good to be true. and, yes, if i must, i’ll bear also the heartbreak, the life lessons that crack open my soul, teach me new truths, truths surely worth knowing.
it’s what makes for unstoppable reading, this narrative page-turner, this not ever knowing what will come next.
just when we think we’ve imagined the next couple of chapters, kaboom, life knocks on the door, brings in new players, takes some away. adds a twist of a plot, thickens the story.
it is, i think, the thing that makes it worth getting up out of bed in the morning. i never mind a little drama stirred in with my coffee. and believe it or not, i don’t mind, not one little bit, a dab of ho-hum at the end of the day.
while it’s true that i, more than most, live on caffeine and adrenaline, even sans stimulants, this life is a rush.
so bring it on, i say. bring on the zeroes and whatever’s attached. bring on the aches and the blurry ol’ vision. bring on the heart pangs, the throbs and the swoons. bring on the moments so sweet, and so heavenly, not a soul that i know, not one with a pen or a typewriter that is, could possibly, ever, have inked such a glorious, wonder-filled, real-life non-fiction.
ol’ fellow, listen up, please perk up your ears: pay no mind to that round little 0 at the end of your years. just thank the lord, hallelujah, the odometer’s still rollin’.

happy birthday to the boy i love best, the one i linked my whole life to. here’s to chocolate eclairs and ping pong tables we assemble together (all 39 steps, 250 parts and 8 pages). here’s to 8-minute burgers and lemony cakes. here’s to the simple sweet things that you love oh so much. here’s to yet another delicious decade.

anyone out there wanna add to the list? reasons to rejoice at every new zero, a collective of wisdom. who wants to go first?