My goodness, Facebook is on crack today with birthday wishes. It’s absolutely awesome! I haven’t been able to get a bit of work done but I guess everyone will forgive me. I want to thank everyone who has sent birthday wishes and I hope I’ve thanked everyone…they’re coming in by the truckloads so if I haven’t gotten to you yet, I will throughout the day.
Another year of life under the belt. You know, if I can get reflective right now (and it’s my birthday so humor me), looking back over the years and seeing where I’ve come today, I just have to pinch myself. For some, it’s fame, for others fortune, but for me, it’s happiness.
Happiness comes from enjoying life. Enjoying your family, your livelihood, your passions.
I have always believed that no matter what kind of hard knocks you get, it only makes you a stronger person and I also always believed that in your life’s path, whatever hard knocks come your way are there for reasons. These reasons are what you have to figure out because once you do, you’re back on the right path.
My daughter just came back from her first trip to D.C. She was with a friend and together they wanted to just “check it out.” So they figured they’d board the train and go to the National Mall. Sounds easy, doesn’t it? So she calls me on her cell and says, “We’re on the blue train and don’t know how to get on the red train (or vice versa) and no one will help us!” So, she told me to google it. I’m googling it, map questing it, and I can’t figure it out either and there are a lot of back and forth phone calls. I’m frantic because she and this friend are on foot on a train not knowing where in the hell they’re going. As a mother, no matter how old your child is, you want to help and there wasn’t a darn thing I could do about it.
So she calls a little while later while I’m in between checking out sites to find out what she is supposed to do and she says, “We found it.”
She then starts sending me pictures of neat things there including a picture of the Smithsonian which I’ve never been to and would die to go to.
The moral of this story is that something kicked in. Instead of relying on others to help (forget people on the train to help you), she did it herself and it’s all part of the learning process which will make her able to do it again without freaking out and will turn her into a stronger person.
On one of the streets she had been walking in a heat index of 105 while trying to find the National Mall, she spotted a homeless person and sent a picture to me. The guy was on the ground leaning up beside a building. You could obviously tell he was homeless. I know there are lots of reasons why people are homeless – loss of jobs, drugs or drinking problems, you name it, but if only they knew how to get themselves out of the situation instead of languishing in self-destruction, then their life would be great again. Has this homeless guy even tried or has he given up?
You can’t give up. Take advantage of every single breathing minute and do something for yourself to make your life a better one.
A few days ago, both my son and daughter asked me what I wanted to do on my birthday and I told them both, what would make my birthday the best it could be is for me to do something that makes me happy. It doesn’t have to be something over the top at all because that’s not the way I am. My perfect birthday would be to be with my family (which we’re going to get some Tammy & Johnny’s chicken – the best in the world), come back here and eat it and go for a walk on the beach.
Oh, and a scooter ride.
You would think that sounds like the most boring thing to do and to you it might, but to me, it’s the best thing in the world to be with my kids and go for a walk on the beach afterwards.
So I’ll leave you with that and I just want you to know I appreciate all the birthday wishes but my one wish for all of you is this. Do something for yourself today. That’s the best gift you could give me.
