Acceptance.

On my little every-day-a-cat calendar, there is a serious-looking cat sitting on a statue. Underneath the photograph are the words Accept that some days you're the pigeon and some days you're the statue. The cat in the photo looks something like Sweet Pea, but our Sweet Pea has a more gentle and kind face.

Getting back to the words, that just about sums up each and every day of each and every year. Some days you're the pigeon. Some days you're the statue. It's been a good long while since I've been the statue. Life is good. And because there is no love or kindness or satisfaction in being the pigeon, I do my best to keep my feet on the ground. Life is good.

Today is Miss C's 20th birthday. I spoke to her yesterday, and asked her if being 20 felt any different than being 19. She said it didn't, except that she was a little sad to see the 'teens' go away. I told C not to worry... that everything gets better in her 20s, still better in her 30s, and so on. I didn't mention that the 40s will make her sit up straight and pay attention, and that the 50s will have her looking back on her teens, her 20s, and her 30s. And I also didn't mention that as she approaches her 60s, she's going to sit there at times and wonder how all those decades could have just disappeared right before her eyes.

This coming June will be my Aunt Dolly's 98th birthday. She is still as sharp, as alert, and as active as ever. Now that she lives in Florida with my cousin S, I'm sure all the NY stress is gone from her life, which will give her an extra nudge towards her 100th year, and beyond. I've asked Aunt Dolly time and again if she's gone to DisneyWorld with S and his kids, but she always tells me the same thing: I haven't seen it yet. If you and your husband come here, I will go there with you. We just may test her on that.

I watched a new episode of "The Cake Boss" last night..... Buddy's wife Lisa had a baby boy, their fourth child. They named the baby Carlo, after Buddy's father who opened up that Hoboken bakery in the early 1900s. I have no idea why, but that episode made me cry. I think the tears started when Buddy was holding the camera as the baby was making his entrance.... Buddy was crying, his wife was crying, and the baby was just born and just perfect. This little bundle of hope and joy and promise. That's the key-- the promise. There is such promise in a new baby. And then when Buddy announced to the family that the baby would be given his father's name, that made me cry also.

I told my husband that if we ever go to New Jersey, I would like to stop by Carlo's Bakery in Hoboken and say hello to everyone there. They're such a big Italian family... and they remind me of my own family back in the 1950s.

The 1950s. That decade was filled with hope and joy and promise also.