In Heaven I'll be 25...

*Notice there is not one mention of Bruce in this post and not one snuggly sweet picture of him either, so if you care not to read I don't blame you. To make up for it I will post something about him in just a minute.*


When I was a little girl we visited my Grandma Chambers just about once a week. Her health was always poor and she seemed 100 years older than she really was. My grandma was funny, sassy, had a passion for American history and she loved to tease.


I will never forget the day I was sitting in her room watching her smoke cigarette after cigarette and chatting with her and her health care aid. "I may be old now" she said "but when I die and go to heaven" as she said this she crossed her fingers and looked up, I laughed "I will be twenty - five."

"Twenty - five?" I was still stupid enough to think twenty - five was old. "Why twenty - five grandma?"

"Because I don't want to be any younger and I don't want to be any older"

And that was all she wrote.

I still remember the feeling of maturity the day I turned twenty - five. Usually each year feels the same but twenty - five felt different, accomplished. It was the last year I would have a face without a single laugh line. Twenty six gave me that. Twenty seven gave me my first gray hair. Twenty eight blessed me with cellulite. And twenty nine, well twenty nine graced me with an abundance of womanhood (about 80 lbs of it.)

Thirty will let me hold onto 20lbs that twenty nine gave me, but not with a disgruntled attitude. Instead, with acceptance. And that is the difference between our twenties and our thirties.

I'm not going to whine about being another year older or be concerned as another sun spot appears on my forehead because it is a blessing to age. It's a blessing to spend another year in this body. Who knows what I will do with this body this year. I might gain another 20lbs, or lose ten. Have another baby or not.

Yes, I can see why my grandmother wanted to be twenty five. It's definitely the prime of your youthful body. But I when I go to heaven *cross fingers* I want the mindset of my thirties and my cellulite free twenty - five year old body.

*I am thirty today and I embrace it. Plus when I looked in the mirror this morning I didn't have an extra wrinkle like I usually do.