CELEBRATE GOOD TIMES, C'MON

Six more sleeps! Five more sleeps! Only four more sleeps! The countdown is on. From the time I can remember, my birthday week was one of the most exciting times in my years of growing up. (Ranking extremely close to Christmas) My grandmother was always the Birthday Bunny, making sure that not only the birthday girl had a surprise, but everyone in the house had a little something too. Each day on the week of my birthday my mom would wrap a small gift and attach a poem with a clue of its contents. Wow! A present everyday for a whole week; No wonder I love my birthday!

Don’t get me wrong. My enthusiasm has diminished since those early years of celebrations. My FEAR of getting older is very present, with or without the Birthday Bunny. Most people dread this day of cake and ice cream gorging. Even with a mountain of gifts on the table, the anguish of adding another digit to our age can send us into a frenzy. Why? What is it about aging that makes our wrinkling skin crawl? Could we be afraid of looking and feeling old because it reminds us of our mortality?

BIRTH-DAY MORTALI-TAY

My FEAR of facing another birthday does not come from the way I look or even the how I feel. Although, there are many days I feel beyond my age. My FEAR comes from the grim reality of losing my grandmother, the original Birthday Bunny. In knowing that my last gift from the Birthday Bunny was a hug and kiss goodbye, I was forced to face my own mortality and that of my loved ones. I see my mom and dad’s birthdays being numbered too, which puts FEAR into my heart. The FEAR of being alone with no one to celebrate these joyous and carefree occasions can be overwhelming. It is strange that I would have this FEAR of birthdays because we are all, in reality, going to die. This FEAR of getting older reminds us all of the fact we are mortal.

BIRTHDAY ATTITUDE

Can our attitude towards aging make a difference? Absolutely! We are truly only as old as we feel. (An old cliché, but so true). A young person in poor health may feel older, while an elderly person in good health can feel young and active. We have one of two choices. We can choose not to celebrate another year of growing older, or overcome our FEAR and embrace the opportunity of making every one of these precious years we’ve been given on earth worthwhile.

I choose to jump into my Birthday Bunny suit with celebration to make others as happy as I have been on these special days that are ours to share. I choose not to lose those happy memories of my grandmother hopping around, getting just as excited about my birthday as I was. FEAR has no room in the days of counting down to my birthday for I know good times are ahead, so let’s CELEBRATE!