Birthday Reflections

I just finished a weekend with chance to have celebrated another year spent on this planet!  I have always looked forward to my birthday.  There are many people that I know that when this day comes for them, they down play the day, not wanting to make a deal out of getting older.  Since I was a child, I have always said that I am going to live to at least 100!  Can you imagine reaching an age where there is an additional digit?

For me, a birthday really is all about celebrating a very special event in our lives – our birth!  Early in the process, a miraculous event occurs which leads to defining the uniqueness that each of us represents.  When a new born enters this world, we all celebrate the new life and wish them a long, happy, healthy and prosperous time while here on Earth.  Once a year, we have the opportunity to remember and reflect on that date to which our lives started.  This is one day where it does get to be all about us!  We have made it through another year, a year that did have positive accomplishments.  The things that did not get accomplished…guess what, they can be addressed within the upcoming year.

This is also a time to be grateful for the events and people that fill our lives.  All of us are impacted in some way or other by the people we know, the people we meet or the people that we read about.  We are all impacted by the choices that we make, the events we choose to participate in or the situations that come upon us.  For all of these things, we are positively impacted and / or we learn something from the occurrence.   I am thankful for my parents bringing me into this world.  I am thankful for finding Debbie, my wife and best friend to share my life with.  I am thankful for Gabrielle and Rebecca, two wonderful children that have blessed our lives.  I am thankful for the pets that we have had.  I am thankful for my brothers and their families.  I am thankful for my entire family and I am thankful for my friends. I am thankful for the people I meet, the places that I go and the things that occur around me.  It is all of these things that fill my life, our lives, with meaning and make each day exciting to wake up to.