Nice Thing No. 149 Birthdays
Today is my birthday.
Birthdays and I have an interesting relationship. Throughout the years I have either absolutely loved or loathed my birthday.
No, I was never the girl who celebrated my birthday for a whole week or gasp a month like some people I knew. I was never the one who wanted surprise parties, expected extravagant gifts or wanted to be showered with endless attention ( surprising for an only child right? ). Maybe, it’s because of the time of the year, maybe it’s that I’ve had some disappointments in years past but each year I would just wish for it to pass as quickly as possible.
Birthdays at least for me, always meant reflecting (and maybe in my case even over analyzing). They meant evaluating where I was and as I got older, confronting certain long held ideas of where I thought I would be at each age and inevitably realizing I was some place completely different. This often left me confused, disheartened and a little sad.
So why make Birthdays a Nice Thing?
Well, it is only after the last couple years of reflection that I have finally come to the following clarity… and it started with a letter.
When I turned thirty I decided to write myself a letter. Twenty-nine had been a very big year and thirty felt monumental so I wanted to somehow make sense of it. So I wrote. I wrote a letter to myself about all the good and bad that had happened, what I had learned, where I thought it all might take me and wishes for me in the next year (let’s just call it the big girl version of birthday candle wishes). After I finished I decided to not read it until the next year.
The next year I read the letter from the year before and this year I did the same. I was surprised and amazed at how each letter was filled with growth, clarity, acceptance and most of all unconditional love. Unconditional love coming right from the person who knew me best… Me.
What these letters have taught me is this… I now see birthdays as a fresh start. They are something to be grateful for. They are another chance at another year where anything is possible by appreciating not only where I have been, but also what I learned, gained and lost, and subsequently the growth that can come from it. It is no longer with a heavy heart I approach Birthdays but a hopeful one.
And although I won’t let you in on everything that’s in this years letter (that’s between … me and… well… me) I will tell you this, I am a wonderful culmination of everything that has happened along the way. I am better than ever for it and I know that whatever lies ahead I can’t wait to hear all about it the next time I write. I will keep making wishes and I will never stop marveling at all the things a year can do.
So here is to one year older, wiser and hopeful for the year ahead. Clear Eyes, Full Heart… Can’t Lose right?
With Nice Things & Full of Birthday Girl Wishes,
Andrea
What Birthday Traditions do you have?
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