So today I celebrate my birthday. If you are thinking “Congratulations on another year complete,” I’d say thank you very much. If you are thinking “Why should I care,” I’d say, “Yeah, I get it, but there is a reason. Just keep reading.” I am not much for the big fanfare that some like for birthdays; I don’t do surprise parties (too sleuth-y for that), I don’t do the big parties (too poor and shy for those), and I don’t typically ask for presents either. Admittedly, I like to treat my birthday as any other day should be treated, and just do what I normally would do, unless I feel the need to take the day from work and take care of some personal business. I do try, however, to make some sport of it for my wife and daughter, especially since my wife likes her birthday and my daughter is, well, still young enough to want to have fun on her birthday. If it wasn’t for them, I would never celebrate it… Ever.
If a birthday has to be good for something, other than the anniversary of the day some doctor caught you and your parents got to find out if they were right on the fact of you being a boy or girl, I would definitely say it would be a good day to reflect over the previous year and give yourself a bit of a grade or an evaluation, kind of like what they do at work every year depending on the type of work that you do. At least, that is the major thing that I like to do with my birthday these days. It is a good way to end the chapter of the previous three hundred sixty-five days (plus one on leap years) and look forward to what you should prepare for during the next three hundred sixty-something days. So, how do you think I did over the last year?
For me, I cannot say that I was very happy with my performance over the last year. You see, I did a poor job recovering from the chain of events that surrounded my niece for number one on the list. It was a rough situation, and I cannot say that the choices that were made were in the best interest of all parties involved. I gave it the “good ol’ college try” I suppose, but just could not lock it in. It affected my work, my home, and all kinds of other things. There are a lot of opportunities to be had there. However, it did help me bring my focus back on learning to be a better blogger and writer, and that is where my heart lies these days. It also showed me some things that I can say calibrated my compass on life. Which, for a guy that has been confirmed to be depressed and anxious medically in the same timeframe, is a lot for just the first line item on the list.
There are other items that I have on the list, but rather than bore you with them, I’ll leave it to you to tell me what you think they are or any things that you think I should have on the list if you wish. In the meantime, I’d like for you to consider this.
Madeleine L’Engle, author of the well-known book “A Wrinkle in time,” is known to have said, “The great thing about getting older is that you don’t lose all the other ages you’ve been.” I would see that as another way of saying you are the sum of all the you’s that you have been every year, since the day that some doctor caught you in mid-air as you left the comfort and warmth of your mother’s womb and did all the other stuff that I said earlier. You are more you on that day than any other day before, bringing credence to the Dr. Seuss quote, “Today you are you! That is truer than true! There is no one alive who is you-er than you!” Every failure and success, every bruise and time healed, everything lost and found, all these things are what makes each of us the person that we are today. I know that this sounds overstated and repeated by many people, but it is true. We are all nothing more than the complete individual databases of experiences and learned events translated into a logical set of responses that form our characteristics, our ethics, and our connections to other people and animals and whatever else we connect to. Thus, it should be foolish for us to not spend some time on this day to review these things that helped mold us over the previous time that we experienced. It should be foolish for us to not review the things that we said we would do or become over that time and not question why we are not these things or not doing those things.
So, what I hope that you take from this quick and simple post is that you should like your birthday for at least one thing and one thing alone. You should enjoy the time that you can take to be able to review these kinds of things and make a practical plan to bring these things to life. You should use this day as the launchpad of new ideas and goals to achieve, rather than the day of soon to come failure known as New Years. Leave that day to belong to the earth and time as defined by man, because the real New Year is your birthday, and should be honored as such.
If a birthday has to be good for something, other than the anniversary of the day some doctor caught you and your parents got to find out if they were right on the fact of you being a boy or girl, I would definitely say it would be a good day to reflect over the previous year and give yourself a bit of a grade or an evaluation, kind of like what they do at work every year depending on the type of work that you do. At least, that is the major thing that I like to do with my birthday these days. It is a good way to end the chapter of the previous three hundred sixty-five days (plus one on leap years) and look forward to what you should prepare for during the next three hundred sixty-something days. So, how do you think I did over the last year?
For me, I cannot say that I was very happy with my performance over the last year. You see, I did a poor job recovering from the chain of events that surrounded my niece for number one on the list. It was a rough situation, and I cannot say that the choices that were made were in the best interest of all parties involved. I gave it the “good ol’ college try” I suppose, but just could not lock it in. It affected my work, my home, and all kinds of other things. There are a lot of opportunities to be had there. However, it did help me bring my focus back on learning to be a better blogger and writer, and that is where my heart lies these days. It also showed me some things that I can say calibrated my compass on life. Which, for a guy that has been confirmed to be depressed and anxious medically in the same timeframe, is a lot for just the first line item on the list.
There are other items that I have on the list, but rather than bore you with them, I’ll leave it to you to tell me what you think they are or any things that you think I should have on the list if you wish. In the meantime, I’d like for you to consider this.
Madeleine L’Engle, author of the well-known book “A Wrinkle in time,” is known to have said, “The great thing about getting older is that you don’t lose all the other ages you’ve been.” I would see that as another way of saying you are the sum of all the you’s that you have been every year, since the day that some doctor caught you in mid-air as you left the comfort and warmth of your mother’s womb and did all the other stuff that I said earlier. You are more you on that day than any other day before, bringing credence to the Dr. Seuss quote, “Today you are you! That is truer than true! There is no one alive who is you-er than you!” Every failure and success, every bruise and time healed, everything lost and found, all these things are what makes each of us the person that we are today. I know that this sounds overstated and repeated by many people, but it is true. We are all nothing more than the complete individual databases of experiences and learned events translated into a logical set of responses that form our characteristics, our ethics, and our connections to other people and animals and whatever else we connect to. Thus, it should be foolish for us to not spend some time on this day to review these things that helped mold us over the previous time that we experienced. It should be foolish for us to not review the things that we said we would do or become over that time and not question why we are not these things or not doing those things.
So, what I hope that you take from this quick and simple post is that you should like your birthday for at least one thing and one thing alone. You should enjoy the time that you can take to be able to review these kinds of things and make a practical plan to bring these things to life. You should use this day as the launchpad of new ideas and goals to achieve, rather than the day of soon to come failure known as New Years. Leave that day to belong to the earth and time as defined by man, because the real New Year is your birthday, and should be honored as such.
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