Life is good…

Last week I wrote an entry on my forty-ninth birthday after having a great weekend with family and friends. I expressed just how happy I am with my life, the simplicity of how things grow as we get older. This week I just had to sit down and reflect on how my Birthday went.

That evening of May 7th, I had plans to have dinner with one my oldest/dearest friend and her husband. You see, we share the same birthdate and we always try to get together if we can.

I had a very busy schedule at work trying to keep ahead of the mothers day rush so I didn’t have too much time to think about what day it was anyway. But I did notice my employee didn’t bring me a card this morning, yet she did wish me a happy birthday right at the start of the day. I thought that was odd because she never missed giving me a card and she is so excited to have me open it, she acts like a little excited child until I give in and open her card. Later I did notice that I had only received one card in the mail,  I thought to myself ‘did no one care that I was having a birthday?’, ‘am I just too old to be thinking they should!?’ I mean really, am I NOT getting too old to be wanting to celebrate my birthday? It seemed an immature thought at this point to be getting depressed by these trivial ideas at the ripe old age of forty-nine!

Continuing to try to put this consternation out of my head, I focused on looking forward to my evening with my two close friends who drove an hour to spend it with me. Unfortunately for me I have a multi-tasking mind, in the back of my head I was getting saddened by the lack of attention I had received and becoming hopeful that they had planned to surprise me at dinner with a party of all my friends. You could say I was having a happy/sad day.

Well the day came to a close at work and still having time to burn before dinner plans at 6:30, I stayed late to work on more repairs for clients, anyway my friends said they where running a bit late too. This kept my mind otherwise occupied because as the day ended my mind became more and more hopeful that they had planned something for me at dinner.

I finally received the text that alerted me to their arrival in town and I was to meet them at the restaurant. I thought, thank God I can end my scheming mind and answer this question at last!

As I arrived at the restaurant I scoped out the parking lot looking for familiar cars… none! It was a letdown, I was really saddened because no one really cared enough to even send a card or give me a quick call all day… I WAS too old or just not that well liked/loved by my family and friends to care enough to do this simplest thing to brighten “my day”!

This mood was short lived because as I entered the hostess lobby I was greeted by my two friends – all was good again. My heart swelled with love for the ones who made plans to spend it with me this night, my night.

We where ushered into the dinning room at a corner table and there was this weird moment in the placement of our seating arrangement. I was so happy to have my friends here that it didn’t strike me as anything but awkward at the time. The drinks were ordered along with appetizers and the conversation was abuzz with getting caught up for the next fifteen or twenty minutes. I was talking, of course, because I tend to dominate a conversation and all the sudden from behind me was a commotion. I turned and there was a line of people who were crowding around our table, it took me a few moments to form the idea that had been crystalizing all day in the back of my mind, They had got me! After all my internal mind meandering and manipulations, I had finally put that ‘surprise idea’ out of my head and bang, my hopes were realized, I was loved by all my friends! , I was thunderstruck and I felt loved beyond description. We had a grand time that night, as we always do when we get together, Laughing, teasing and telling stories, after all that’s what friends do.  

In truth this is the only surprise birthday party anyone has ever thrown for me, after forty-nine years. It was special

I will leave off with this one idea for you. It is the simple things that make life worth living, walking down the street you are greeted with from a stranger wearing smile for you, when someone buys you a cup of coffee at the coffee shop. The text that says “hey, what u doing?”, or just watching the sun come up on a quiet morning as you ready yourself for the days events. Life doesn’t need to be complicated, it doesn’t need to be filled with drama either. Open your eyes and see the beauty all around you. Life just need to be lived one day at a time with those whom you really love.