I do like a little celebration simply because it is a good excuse and I have a hard time getting away from my to-do lists to relax unless I have a reason. Elly was nice enough to bake me a “cake”, which really was bread that spelled out Happy Birthday Mike. I prefer bread to cake, so I was certainly pleased. I got some nice gifts, the best being my fancy new Hines Ward Steelers jersey. Gow Stillers. And some friends made up a special picture for me that is incredible (see link).
As I am very goal-oriented, I inevitably use annual events like Birthdays to measure progress. Standing back, this has been a year of stretching my abilities and comfort zones. Spending months in Uruguay and Germany fundamentally changed my perspective and taught me a whole new set of skills in enjoying people who I have nothing in common with. A change in jobs is always somewhat traumatic, but so far my transition has been overwhelmingly positive in part because of the new challenges I face. Despite this year being characterized by a world rocked by problems, family and friends are all doing well. I found a non-profit to volunteer for (RedCross) that I am really enjoying, which helps to satisfy my need to giveback.
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1 comment:
Haha - I know that feeling quite well : of a birthday being a non-event. In fact, the only thing that "happened" is the strange coincidence of the Earth having revolved once more around the common centre of gravity of the solar system and the specific time recorded when you were born. In some sense, that indeed can almost be used as a virtual "milestone", hehehe.
In fact, I always considered the counting already strange - most people simply forget the very 1st "real" birthday. (with the exception of the Koreans, but that is an entirely different story of confusion.) So, in my eyes, most of mankind gets it wrong.
And furthermore, shouldn't we really rather congratulate the mother for the BIRTHday ?? My attempts of introducing such a new procedure with some of the mothers of my friends whom I knew a little better have so far fallen on rather non-fertile grounds and mostly been rejected as outright silly. Oh well....not easy to change traditions, as silly as they may be.
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