HAPPY SOCIAL DISTANCE BIRTHDAY

I had a great birthday last week, despite the social isolation imposed upon all of us at this time. I worked a few hours, picked up take-out food, and came home to a quiet evening with my family. Binge-watching our favorite Netflix series was followed by a great movie. It was a nice, peaceful evening.  I even had a Zoom happy birthday hour with two dear friends.

Fifty-four is going to be a great year.

***********

Easter typically falls near my birthday, and Gail, Suzanne and I, along with the rest of our family, typically observe my birthday when we all get together for Easter.

This year was not typical. There was no family get-together, so there was no celebration of my birthday with them this year.

For Gail and Suzanne, however, missing the observation of my birthday was not an option. So, as the rest of the world has turned to online business and social interactions out of necessity, they created a virtual celebration on Facebook. They dug deep in their stacks of family pictures and pictures on their phones from our sister trips, and came up with some treasures.  They carefully selected them, cropped them, enhanced some of them, and then they captioned them. It was the next best thing to all of us being together.

If all this is not evidence of true sisterly love, then I don’t know what is.

***********

The best gift I usually get for my birthday is from Mother Nature.  Nearly every year, she makes everything green again, just in time for my birthday.  This year, she didn’t disappoint.  However, she wrapped it up in white for me this year, and I didn’t like that so much.  The white was gone by late morning, and the beautiful green was back.

***********

I’ve said it before, and I will say it again: age is a gift. If you are healthy and able, there is no reason to complain about age. Age allows us to build insight and wisdom from all our previous experiences. I said this in Gail’s birthday post, and it bears repeating: we get to keep all our previous ages, sifting out what is good about each of them, and letting the rest go. It is our choice. We get to pick and choose what we want to keep, and move forward with it to make the next years even better.

Whenever your next birthday is, happy birthday to you. I hope your celebration is everything you want it to be–up close, or from a distance.