Birthdays Differ With Age
Having a birthday when you’re in your 20s or your 30s definitely resonates much differently. Each era feels differently. You feel invincible in your 20s, you’re able to party and hold a decent job in your 30s, and then there are the 40s. While I am not quite there, I’ll be turning the big 40 soon enough. My husband has been there and done that. He turned 42 yesterday, and we celebrated early.
Once you’re a parent, you find out quickly the enormous amount of responsibility on your hands. You are raising a human, not a puppy or a pet turtle. You don’t really think about yourself. Your immediate responsibility is to your child and to your family; everything else seems to be an afterthought. Birthdays and holidays are special but for different reasons, such as when you watch your child laugh as she helps you open presents. And simply spending time with friends and families in the backyard or in the living room—and getting to bed by 11 p.m.—feels so much better than a night at the local bar. The important thing is not what you have or how many people attended your party; it’s about your immediate family.
When trying to get our little one to smile, we have to often over-exaggerate ours.
Family Matters More Than Birthdays
Birthdays are not as important the older you get. And I do believe age is only a number. Ultimately, our minds in conjunction with healthy habits are what keep us young. Still, it’s amazing to witness a toddler running around in complete awe of the world they are experiencing. Our daughter just recently discovered the wind, of all things. She throws her hands up in the air and she braces herself, laughing as each gust blows across her face and through her hair. Meanwhile, as adults, we become more and more skeptical with each passing year.
Each day we ought to celebrate our life in the way a babe does as they discover the world around them. We don’t need a special day to remind us that we’re special and to celebrate another year of living. Things change, people change and they both come and go in our lives. Every year we take a breath we get older, hopefully wiser and all the while we are trying to get back to our youthful selves. Back to the day when the wind was magical, the sun’s warmth energized our imagination and life was abundant in new discovery.
Rather than moan and groan, feeling the weight of the world and our age on our backs, birthdays should be a baptism through the waters of regeneration, where we learn how to be young again.
We are as young as we choose to be.
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