Fifty years ago today, my mother gave birth to me in Portage La Prairie, Manitoba at 4:40 in the afternoon. So here I am now, a half a century later, living in a motorhome and travelling around North America. While mentally I don't feel any older than I did twenty years ago, physically and emotionally I definitely notice a difference. I have acquired several lines on my face that weren't there when I was 30 while some "body parts" have softened or gravitated southward and I can no longer eat anything I want without suffering weight-gaining consequences. Now I need to workout to keep my heart healthy and my waist trim and it takes me longer to recover from minor injuries.

The good news though, is that emotionally I am far more stable and I have twenty added years of wisdom than I had in 1985. Little things no longer drive me crazy; I am no longer irritated by the same things that used to send me into a frenzied state of imbalance and I feel like my patience level is much higher too. At 50, my self-confidence is at an all time high and I no longer find endless faults in the image that looks back at me in mirrors. I have acquired an acceptance of things in myself that for years I plotted to change when I got older; suddenly they're not so bad after all, like my rounded tummy and the lines around my eyes and mouth.

There was a time when 50 seemed like having one foot in the grave and overall, people looked a lot older than they do now. Nowadays we females have icons like Oprah, Jane Fonda, Tina Turner, Jamie Lee Curtis and Susan Sarandon to aspire to and who profess to never having had plastic surgery (yet). Yes, being 50 is actually a milestone I no longer dread and am quite proud of. And if the past fifty years are any indication of what is to come next, I am in for an interesting journey indeed.