Getting Back to Myself

I just celebrated my 49th birthday.  I find birthdays incredibly humbling.  By the time my Mom was my age I remember being so proud of her, I mean she could still vacuum and move furniture and stuff - like,  wow, she was old and strong!  Now I understand her true strength was in her patience and tolerance and endless teaching just by being herself.  I mean really - what was I thinking?  Thank you Mom for allowing me to live past my 20's.  Phew! 

So the joke was kind of on me - I spent my birthday in the north woods of Minnesota - the Arrowhead, the Iron Range, the edge of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area - Ely, MN.  I was with friends.  One of our friends has two boys.  They are 10 and 15.  All weekend their Mom kept having them move so I could have a comfortable chair.  Boy, I bet they were surprised when I got in a canoe and could actually paddle and stuff - I mean I was old and active - Ha! 

I had a wonderful birthday and am grateful of the people in my life - Kristin, my parents,  friends, family, even the people who come and go around me - those that tell me to have a good day or open a door and smile at me, let me merge onto the freeway in the middle of rush hour - Kristin, my friends and family - those that help me celebrate my birthday, they are the ones that help me see the world this way, spend my energy honoring and celebrating and laughing.  

Gromit and Chewie paced the house as I wrote this - they are a bit on the bored side tonight - Chewie wagged his tail and barked at me from the darkness of the dining room - Gromit wandered the first floor and checked every window on the first floor awaiting something, anything that might need a good warning bark - both of them with nails too long clicked over the floor.   Kristin let them out to sniff their yard.  I hid some treats while they did a sit and stay - it only lasts about 5 minutes but it is the longest stay I get out of those boys.  

They are part of my celebration too - they make me laugh every day.  I never plan it but they manage to find a way to make me smile.  I try to find a way to make sure each tail wags a few times every day.  

This year - I plan to spend more time focusing on getting back to the part of me that connects with compassion and remember that a good belly scratch usually gets a tail wag, giving a smile usually gets a smile, and giving up a comfortable chair may mean giving someone else comfort - not because they are fragile, but because it is a way to care about them to share what you find comforting.