Another Happy Return

My birthday has come around again as birthdays do.  I'm officially another year older and much, much grayer, but other than that, still plugging along as always. I thought I'd pause a moment to share some lessons learned along the way to 43.  Yes, it's true I am beginning to have to hold the small print a little further from my face to read it, but I also spent many long summer days wielding a pick-axe to hew out a retaining wall for our basement, which is something I could never have done at 23.  So, I am older, yes, but also stronger.

For part one of that statement I will say that as I look back over the years of my life, I find the secret to most of my so-called successes to be the same for each case: Just keep showing up and giving it all you've got.  Truth be told, I'm really not very good at many things.  In fact, I can't really think of anything that I'm better than average at, but I keep at something until I see results.  I keep showing up, keep grinding at it, until something changes.  And it seems to me after all my years on Earth, that really, this is the secret to most people's success in work, relationships, hobbies, interests and all the like.

For part two, I feel I must iterate that life really is all about what you give not what you get and the most fulfilling life is not the kind where you got everything you ever wanted but the kind where you gave everything you possibly could.  Show up every single day asking not what you can get out of life but what you can give.  Every single day, I give everything I have, even if I don't have much, I still give it all.  That's the only way to make this life count.  That's the only thing that will make me ready to go when my life is over is to show up every day, run the race, fight the good fight, give it all, and do it every day and every moment there is breath in my lungs.  Because it's all a gift, every breath, every moment on loan to us.

I am grateful for my time here on Earth, the good and the bad.  I can honestly say that I have learned more and grown more as a person from hardship than from prosperity, but I'm definitely not an expert at how to live the best life, so I won't continue pontificating.  Instead, I'll just leave this post with the rest of these beautiful pictures in this beautiful dress.