Greatest Day of the Year

January 24th

Today is my birthday.  Most, including myself, recognize today as the "greatest day of the year".  Okay, so not "most", hell, really not even a few.  But I do.  Always have.

Robin got a book this past Christmas from "the kids" (yes we give each other gifts from our pets, get over it).  The book is called "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson.  If you have a curiously scientific brain, this is a must read.  If you are like me and love the information but aren't much of a reader, buy it for your spouse and let them read you the most interesting parts.  

While waiting for the dealership to clean up Muddy to take home for the very first time, Robin read me what I consider the most interesting blip from that book.  It reads like this "Not only have you been lucky enough to be attached since time immemorial to a favored evolutionary line, but you have also been extremely - make that miraculously - fortunate in your personal ancestry.  Consider the fact that for 3.8 billion years, a period of time older that the Earth's mountains and rivers and oceans, every one of your forebears on both sides has been attractive enough to find a mate, healthy enough to reproduce, and sufficiently blessed by fate and circumstances to live long enough to do so.  Not one of your pertinent ancestors was squashed, devoured, drowned, starved, stranded, stuck fast, untimely wounded, or otherwise deflected from its life's quest of delivering a tiny charge of genetic material to the right partner at the right moment in order to perpetuate the only possible sequence of hereditary combinations that could result - eventually, astoundingly, and all too briefly - in you."  (Deep, eh?).

I think my feeble brain caught on to that concept long before hearing it read to me from some book, but it's not been until this year that I've realized how important that fact is to me.  It is, after all, the reason that I celebrate my birthday every year with all the greatest gratitude and intentions.  

Kathleen first met Mike while he was picketing for better wages at the phone company.  They worked at the same place, but I guess for whatever reason Kathleen felt it best not to picket and be content with her measly wages.  Mike stopped her one afternoon as she was leaving work, told her how pretty she was and asked her on a date.  A year later I was conceived.  Being that Mike was married and had a family my existence in this world could have ended there.  But Kathleen made the decision to carry me "in secret", then pass me along to a family that could potentially give me a better life.  I am here today because of that decision.  I know it wasn't an easy decision, it was not made in haste, it was not made lightly.  It was a decision that was well thought out and the result is me.  And just as she celebrated my birthday every year (even though I wasn't there) with close friends and a small cake, I now celebrate hers and mine.  See, her birthday was one week ago today and even with a heavy heart I celebrated as much as she would have celebrated mine.  

For all those people who ignore their birthday for sheer vanity reasons I say "shame on you!".  Do you know what it took to get you here?  Do you realize the odds of you being in existence today?  You should embrace every year with acceptance and gratitude.  

Today I am 43.  Another reason to be thankful.  You know the old saying "if I knew then what I know now".  Geez, how much better my life would have been if I had just known that if I'd be a bit patient my life would turn out to be this good.  All those stupid mistakes, boughts of extreme sadness, bad relationships, bad people, negativity abound, those things would just be a part of my past.  And that's exactly what they are, a part of the past...  43.  I am 43 today and so grateful for those years, those learning experiences, those memories and everything I have today.

The odds of me being here today were slim.  Two people met for a brief drop in time and created a little Izzy.  So everyone raise your glass.  Here's to Kathleen, first and foremost, for without her and her big heart I wouldn't be here today.  And here's to Mike, even though I don't know him, I still needed him to create me.  And here's to my husband, kids, the universe, friends, all the spirit guides, animal totems, words of wisdom and everything else that has made this such an amazing journey for 43 years.  Namaste.

"We turn not older with years, but newer every day."

~ Emily Dickinson

Comments

[staci smith]

Wow! What a wonderful way to look at this. Thanks and happy birthday Iz!

[mary jane dodd]

the happiest of birthdays... what a beautiful post... and you are right, given the fact that we are all so fortunate to be here - we need to view it rightly and put that energy back into the universe...
you were, and are, very loved...

[Jen]

Hi Izzy,
I came by yesterday (for the record) and did comment but failed (this happens to me a lot...) to punch in the word verification at the end. And I only notice it hours later..
Anyway - Happy Birthday. I agree with everything you said (except my birthday might be the real greatest day.. hahahah jk)
Hope you had a great day.
Much love,
- Jen

oh - and I really love the Dickinson quote.