I wouldn’t normally bring this to everyone’s attention, but today just happens to be my birthday. My family, friends and Facebook world all know this of course, and since this blog was scheduled for today, it seemed like the obvious topic to explore.

    I’ve had 44 of these special days! Again, something I wouldn’t normally shout from the rooftop, (or make known on social media)…but since I’m being open and honest here, you might as well know. It’s just a number, right? You’re only as old as you act, feel, pretend to be, and so on. Another year older is better than the alternative, right? There are so many ways to make one’s self feel better about growing older. I sometimes try to remember when I “stopped” eagerly anticipating my birthdays as a child, and “started” trying to slow down the days until they arrived. 

     I don’t hate birthdays. In fact, I’ve always enjoyed a good birthday celebration. I attribute that to the wonderful parties my mom gave me growing up. They weren’t elaborate. Quite the opposite actually. They were simple, and just perfect in my mind. Each was special though, and even into my adult years, my parents have always been included in making “my day,” one to remember. In my younger years, they were home parties mostly. You know, the kind where you have a few friends over, cake and ice cream is served, and then you entertained yourselves the rest of the night. I know… nearly unheard of these days. If I would have known years ago, how much money could be made from hosting “over the top” birthday parties at an “away from home” location, I’d be a wealthy woman! But that’s an entirely different topic for another time.

     Aging of course, brings perspective. It forces us to reflect and maybe even over-analyze a bit. Lucky for me, my birthday falls close to the New Year, so I could really jump on board the whole “making changes” bandwagon, if I chose to. Not only is the calendar changing to a new year, but BAM…it also turns into another number for me – like in the same week!! That’s a whole lot to tackle, so I generally just avoid making any specific resolutions other than to live fully! What other choice do I have? What better choice for any of us!? After all, none of us knows what another year will bring or whether there will be more birthdays to celebrate. We don’t know when the candles will burn out for good, so I will choose to celebrate each day and make my wishes count.

    What will I do you ask? That’s always my favorite part of having my own children now. They always want to know how we will celebrate. When they were younger, they’d say, “What kind of party do you want mom?” or they’d remind me to make those wishes when I blew out my candles. It always made me smile and laugh a little, because they couldn’t imagine that the “magic” of a birthday would ever go away.

It doesn’t have to.

I don’t know how magical this birthday will be in a child’s mind. But for me, the magic lies in the realization that I’ve come this far. When I reflect, I’ve got lots to celebrate and plenty to party about! Life is good. It’s different each year, but in a wonderful way  (well except for that whole losing my eye sight part and the “what the heck is THAT pain” thing!) No one ever said it would be easy to get older. But I’m so young, it’s going to be a long time before I have to deal with the really tough stuff, right?

Well, that’s my wish this year anyway!!!