As The World Turns

"Life sometimes gets so bogged down in the details, you forget you are living it. There is always another appointment to be met, another bill to pay, another symptom presenting, another uneventful day to be notched onto the wooden wall. We have synchronized our watches, studied our calendars, existed in minutes, and completely forgotten to step back and see what we've accomplished."
— Jodi Picoult (My Sister's Keeper). As the years pass by sometimes we just need to stop and think about what really matters to us as we go through this life. Summer always makes me think about how quickly time flies. Another school year ends. Another year goes by for my beautiful daughters who begin to daydream about their upcoming birthdays. They are already beginning to decide on which gift they want the most this year: another chance for a horse show, an IPad, a new wardrobe, a blackberry. So many choices, so little time, to decide which of these gifts would make an ‘official’ teenager (turning 13) happy or what would satisfy a 15 year old throughout the summer. Truth is, they don’t need ANY of these things. They have WAY more than is necessary to survive in the fast moving world known as ‘Teenager’. Teenagers LIVE for their birthdays; however, it doesn’t really change as we get older. We start to think about that special gift that we wouldn’t normally give ourselves any other day of the year. We believe that since we survived another 365 days around the sun that we should be ‘rewarded’ for a job well-done. Of course, in truth, all of this is completely out of our control. We actually didn’t have anything to do with the journey. Fate was responsible, as well as our ability to keep ourselves safe from harm, to eat healthier, to work out a little harder, to get flu shots, to remember our seat belts, and look both ways before we cross the road. I recently attended a 90th birthday party for a very close friend. Before he blew out his birthday candles (no, we didn’t put 90 candles on the cake) I reminded him to make a wish. He shut his eyes for but a moment, only to open them and extinguish the fire with one breathe. I needed to know, just what does a 90 year wish for: a happy family, one less ache, a fun trip. I asked him what he wished for, and his reply was nothing what I expected. He said, “Just another birthday!”. It says everything I was thinking wrapped into one! From his lips to God’s ears. I know what I’ll be wishing for at my next birthday and the one after that, and the one after that, and the one……..