The Problem With Birthdays?
Too soon you say?
Hold on, I’ll explain
If I am being truthful, it’s hard for me to believe I have just embarked upon my 60th lap around the sun.
When I look back on all the places I’ve been, the things that I’ve done — the people that I’ve met — it seems as though I have already accomplished an enormous amount and yet in some ways it really feels as though the journey is just getting started.
For all that I have — all the friends — all the good fortune — all the accumulated wisdom — I really love the notion that there is still so much I can learn and so many places that I can go.
And so, while so many of those around me seem to be winding down, finding it a struggle to get out of bed in the morning, and looking for ways to ease up, I greet the day with excitement and look forward to whatever it is that I will get to do.
Some might wonder how it is possible to keep going at this rate, but for me it is surprisingly simple — I just proceed at a pleasant pace without rushing or stressing or delaying or procrastinating.
In short when it is time to do a thing — I just do it.
When my body is tired, I sleep.
When my body is hungry, I feed it.
When it’s time to move forward, I take a step.
But of all the things that I get to do, perhaps my favorite aspect of the human experience is the opportunity to stare out over the horizon and ask myself — where to next?
What will it be like?
Who will I meet there?
What challenges will I face and what will I learn from them?
You would think that birthdays would be the perfect time for celebrating all of this — but that’s not really how birthdays work is it?
Oddly as children we are taught that our birthday is our “special” day — a day when everyone gathers to celebrate us and shower us with gifts.
But are we only “special” on that one day?
Better yet — what happens in later life when the day everyone is “supposed” to honour us comes and they don’t?
Or worse — the day is remembered in ways that stir up feelings of anger, or disappointment that we are running out of time (or that life has not turned out the way we expected) that we cannot really justify, nor easily dismiss?
How is this self-imposed cycle of anticipation and disappointment in any way helpful?
Perhaps it isn’t.
Perhaps what we really need to do as adults is do away with all this backward nonsense and start to simply wish each other “Happy New Year” because that is what the day actually is — the start of a new year in our personal journey.
And why not make it a day that anyone can look forward to — the start of a year — a fresh start you might say — filled with endless possibilities and a time for the renewal of hope.
So, if you are reading this and it is YOUR birthday, then Happy New Year!
- Missed last week article “Finding Faith”? Click here to watch now: https://youtu.be/ErX0vnB9lYI
