The Best For Last: The Three Things I Learned From My Birthday Celebration : Good Enough Mother

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In each and everything we do we should be able to say we learned from it and for me, last weekend was no different. As I type this I have a fever and a throat that feels like the business side of sandpaper. While there are few things quite a disappointing as finishing a big weekend with a cold, it sure was a lot of fun getting here.

As you know it was my birthday (and is it just me or are these coming faster every year?), a time to celebrate with friends, look back on the past year and ahead to the upcoming. But in reflecting on that time, I realized there were three big things I learned.

MY FRIENDS ARE MY TRUE GIFTS: I had two birthday parties this year (hence, the cold), each one attended by several close friends. When you’re a kid or even a young adult, you see each other at school or work and that friendship is sealed by the commonalities of life at that time. Then something happens; you get married, you get families, you get busy and before you know it, it’s been six months since you sat down for some chat time. The great thing about my true friends is that when we do have a chance to slow down for conversation over coffee (or wine) it’s almost as if no time has passed and we pick up right where we left off.

THE OLD GIRL STILL HAS IT! Well, at least to young, over-served crowd. On the eve of my 49^th birthday, our little group was stopped by a couple of Brazilian guys looking for a nearby bar. Using GPS to bridge the language barrier, we told them how to get to it at which point one of the young men, seeking to express his gratitude to me, tried to plant one on my middle-aged lips. And when he found out we were birthday buds, well, that meant in his mind, we were even more destined to be together, forget that I was born 27 years before he was. I laughed and politely declined his amorous advances; what did you THINK I was going to say?

I SAVED THE BEST FOR LAST: Well, the old girl, SORT OF still has it because by Sunday afternoon I was feeling pretty bad. See, Sunday was the big family celebration and the kids had been talking it up all week. But by the time dinner rolled around I was coughing, feverish and struggling with the aforementioned sore throat. Luckily, it was a come-as-you-are affair and I came downstairs in my finest footie pajamas and terrycloth robe.

Buff had tried a new dish I asked him to make and it was awesome. The kids had set the table and laid out a little surprise too. Along with my favorite cake (Carrot cake), they had with their own money, bought some of my favorite candy but also, being frugal, they added a few boxes of chocolate hearts, now, on deep discount post-Valentine’s day. So it was a birthday, Valentine’s bash and I thought it was ingenious!

Sometimes we are so busy, consumed by the pace of life, that we forget it’s the little moments, like a special dinner or sale candy, that fill in the places between the pillars. Don’t spend so much time running between the big ones that you miss the ones that add texture and meaning to this thing called life.

I’m not, which is precisely why I’m having carrot cake and chocolate with my coffee this morning.

What about you, how do you keep from being consumed by life and what gets you focused on the things that matter?