8, 31, 57

Today I am grateful to have celebrated another birthday and to have the simple gift of waking up this morning. I completed 57 years yesterday and have entered my 58th year on the planet. I will gladly tell you how old I am if you ask. I appreciate being here and I give thanks for both the joy and despair that have shaped me into a fairly content middle-aged woman. “Better older than deader” is my philosophy. As long as I feel that way, keep the birthdays coming please!

You can read more of my thoughts on birthdays in these two posts from my previous blog “Habitual Gratitude.” Both were written in 2013. “Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake” borrows the title of Anna Quindlen’s memoir. She talks about heading into her sixties and offers the wisdom of living life with eyes and heart open. More Birthdays Please! is a nod to living gratefully and having two diseases that kill people every day as part of my life experience.

I had a peaceful and enjoyable day yesterday. No big plans, a nice pace to the day, getting birthday wishes from others, enjoying a family meal in the evening. To reflect on this birthday, I started a gratitude list on Tuesday with the goal of reaching 57 items on the list. Writing down a few things here and there, I returned to the list several times and achieved my goal last evening. Don’t worry. I won’t bore you with my 57 items, but I encourage you to indulge in this gratefulness practice on your next birthday, or an anniversary, or just because you like the number 24 and want to write 24 gratitudes. Anything goes.

Here are a few highlights from my list though:

8. My husband Darcy. As we age, we appreciate being the same age. It makes both celebrating and commiserating aging stuff easier.

11. I survived my drinking days, many times in a blackout, allowing me to arrive here today.

12. The list of things I care less about, in healthy ways, is growing. That may be about what others think, but more often it is about what I think. (Or don’t think, as is the case more often now.)

31. Losing 8 body parts to cancer or the threat of cancer, but still having the parts that matter most.

45. Continuing to expand my spiritual life.

46. My family of origin and my own immediate family today.

57. Opportunities to honor gratefulness, presence, acceptance, imperfection.

More birthdays please! But I won’t wait another year to reflect on the profound nature of being ALIVE. That is a daily endeavor.