71 YEARS OLD!! DAMN!!!

I had a birthday the other day.  The result?  71 trips around our sun.  In my wildest dreams, when I was in my twenties, NEVER did I imagine getting to this age.  But, here I am.  Now what?  I'm a bit slower these days, but I still love to play!  Sometimes, I get a little unsteady on my feet.  Solution?  I sit when I play now and have done so for a few years!  The songs I write these days seem to be more reflective of what I've seen, heard, and done throughout all my years.  Take, for instance, "Empty Table."  True story, and NOT just once!!  Or, "Mama It Hurts."  I was personally, deeply affected and touched by events like this.  When younger, I wrote songs that more or less did not require deciphering like many of the songs that are written today.  They were straightforward in their message, whether sad like "The Ice We're Skating On Is Thin,"or bouncy like "Supermarket Blues."  

Seventy-one!  Whether you write it out or represent it numerically, it's a long time.  What it means to me is that I have way more years behind me than I have in front of me.  And, that's a heavy thought!!  

Now what?  Now, I'll keep playing, even though it's a bit more difficult to find gigs these days.  I'll keep writing, words still come to me!  I can't say I know from where the words come, but they do, from somewhere.  And it seems that every time I pick up my guitar I learn something new, and that's awesome!!

Sadly, making it to 71 (so far) has seen many of my friends, and fans called home.  And also called home have been some stellar talent we all knew and to whom we listened as we spun around on this rock.  But, that's life, I guess.  

I have much for which to be grateful and thankful.  My wife, Wendy, continues to get an ALL CLEAR result from her cancer checkups!!  YAY!!!  My youngest daughter graduates from college this year, as does my youngest son from High School!!  My oldest daughter has been invited to join a sorority, Phi Theta Kappa, and accepted at her college, down in the Keys.  PLUS, she is celebrating beaucoup days of being clean and sober!!  THAT is a miracle.  And my middle son is also changing his life.  My oldest boy?  Well, he's still paying the price for very poor choices, something for which I am truly thankful I made it through.  I won't get into all my years of addiction, except to say, I have beaucoup years now, on the other side of life!!  

Seventy-one.  Yep.  I guess that officially makes me a sage, a deep thinker, wise.  What that makes me is 71, plain and simple.  What I am officially is on my way to 72!!

Love you cats!!  I'll see you down the road!!

Michael Murphy

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