Birthday Party

For those of you who rememebered my birthday this year, THANK YOU! And if you didn't, shame on you!

Many thanks to everyone for thinking of me yesterday and the happy birthday wishes. I can thankfully tell you that your wishes came true.

There are generally a couple of significant days throughout the year that make me think about important things in my life. Christmas and Thanksgiving often remind me to think of my family and how important they are to me, New Years and Valentines day are a reminder of whether I do or don't have a girlfriend, and My birthday is a time to think about the past year and the year going forward (so is New Years, actually).

If I think about this past year, all I can say is, "holy shit, what a year!" In truth, I've made some extraordinary changes, and I'm happy about them all. In looking forward, I can only get excited about the things to come. When I stop and think about yesterday, though, I feel a real sense of peace. In years past, I'm pretty sure I would not have let this day pass without some extraordinary party (usually lasting a week or longer), but this year was different. I kept it low key at work, and there was no big celebration (well, not last night at least...who knows what the weekend will hold). Am I getting older? Yes (every day, actually). Am I slowing down? No...if you know me, you know that'll never happen.

What makes me happiest about my birthday this year is that I've grown a ton in the past year. I've taken some risks. I've done some soul searching. I wouldn't say that "I've found myself," because a) that's too cheesy and b) I believe that my identity will evolve over time, but I will say that the growth I've experienced has allowed me to find a sense of peace. Enough so that I don't need to have a raging party to celebrate. So I had an easy night. I got a good night's sleep, and I'm going to have a good day today. And then I'll probably blow it out this weekend because that's part of who I am as well. Anyway, I had a happy birthday because when I looked back on the past year and thought about how I felt yesterday, I had a very satisfying sense of peace.

For each of you, I am ever thankful for your love and support. This peace would not be possible without it.

God bless!