Thinking Out Loud #7: Birthday Edition

Wednesday was my 52^nd birthday. Nothing monumental about the number or the day, but the occasion afforded me an opportunity for reflection.

• I took advantage of my usual free birthday drink from Starbucks, a grande Mocha. I drink one a year and it is always good and always enough.

• My co-workers gave me a bag of Haribo Peaches. Perfect.

• I gave myself a Pecan Kringle from Trader Joe’s.

• When my mom calls to wish me happy birthday, I always thank her for giving birth to me. I couldn’t have done it without her.

• I told my youngest son that fifty-two doesn’t feel all that different from fifty-one or fifty, but it feels a lot different from twenty-two (my son’s age) or thirty-two.

• Save for a few aches and pains and nagging workout-related injuries, fifty-two feels better. Relative to my age, I’m in better shape now than when I was thirty-two, but not twenty-two.

• I’m more secure, grounded, and confident now than I was then. My confidence now is more focused. At twenty-two, I was confident I could do anything. Now I’m confident there are a number of things I can’t do well and just a few I can. I take great joy, pleasure, and satisfaction from working within my wheelhouse.

  

  Photo by Pineapple Supply Co. on Unsplash

• I’m less ambitious now than I was then. Since much of it was selfish-ambition, I take this as mostly a good thing. There are occasions when I miss caring about some of the pursuits that once occupied my attention. No matter how hard I try though, I can’t make myself care about them anymore.

• For my birthday, I watched Gladiator 2 on Paramount+. I did this because I never got around to watching it at the theatre. This would have been unthinkable to earlier versions of myself. (It was fine, but I’ll re-watch the original multiple times before watching it again, if ever.)

• Along with wishing me happy birthday, a friend shared this quote from Henri Nouwen. I plan on sharing it with others in the future.

Birthdays need to be celebrated. I think it is more important to celebrate a birthday than a successful exam, a promotion, or a victory. Because to celebrate a birthday means to say to someone: “Thank you for being you.” Celebrating a birthday is exalting life and being glad for it. On a birthday we do not say: “Thanks for what you did, or said, or accomplished.” No, we say: “Thank you for being born and being among us.”

On birthdays we celebrate the present. We do not complain about what happened or speculate about what will happen, but we lift someone up and let everyone say: “We love you.”