Happy Birthday to Me!

If I look at my birthday as a numerical value, it's pretty frightening.  I could easily have a panic attack--I mean, 54!  I could think of my birthday in terms of time passed versus time possibly left, and I would end up in the "pits of despair."  Sometimes I look at myself in the mirror and wonder, "When did I get these sags and bags?"  "Where did this floppy-ness in my neck come from?"  Yep, if I looked at myself in terms of flesh-and-blood-years-aging-as-time-goes-by, I would definitely consider my birthday a time of mourning.  Instead, I've decided to think of myself as timeless (eternal spirit and all that . . .)  That view makes my birthday a time of celebration, not mourning.  I really do think of myself as the same, year after year, with the possible exception of the ridiculous (stupid?) choices and mistakes I made in younger years.  I really don't feel like I change much.

That said, I have to share what has become a tradition in our family--the cake, ice cream, and card party.  Years ago my mom and her sisters would get together to have pie and coffee at a local restaurant for each of their birthdays.  It expanded to dinner at a restaurant, and we daughters of the sisters were added to the mix.  I remember when my cousin's daughter Rikki joined us for the first time.  She was in a high chair at the table (she's now in college), and it was a wonderful moment for me to see the three generations of women together.  It became a real tradition at that point.  The tradition morphed into coffee, cake, ice cream and whatever seemed fun at someone's house.  We share crazy cards, the latest happenings, and memories while we laugh and eat.  This year my daughter made gluten-free "diet" cake for me, and the women once again brought crazy cards which I hesitated to open, knowing I was about to get slammed by jokes about my advancing age, and we laughed.  That's the best part of it all.

I have been so blessed by these wonderful women in my life.  They've supported and encouraged me my entire life.  I received a card today which was meant to make me think about how old I am as I read about simple things of years gone by, but it also said, "It means you were lucky to have such good times . . ."  I have been lucky to have experienced these wonderful times with such amazing women.  Thank you all.