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As I celebrate another birthday…

and more wrinkles on my face I see..

I’m grateful how each wrinkle brings me a little closer

to the person I was meant to be.

On my birthday I once again turn to Emily Dickinson

I love the things she has to say…

Like how:

We turn not older with each year…

but newer every day.

I have always been grateful for all the blessings I’ve received…

One is having a birthday that falls on New Year’s Eve.

When I was young I was astonished to think everyone on Earth

came together with friends and family just to celebrate my birth. 

How perfect strangers would on this night meet in places like Time’s Square

to watch a ball drop, kiss each other…then throw confetti in the air.

Of course I now know that kind of thinking was a bit naive… 

because all that laughter and partying comes at the end of New Year’s Eve.

Yes, all those people who gather…all those strangers…all my friends.

are not happy it’s my birthday….they are happy when it ends.

Still when it comes to my birthday …when about a gift Deborah inquires.

My answer is the same each year…I have everything I desire.

I have a wife whom I love and who will love me till the end…

I was blessed to have been lucky to marry by best friend.

I have children and grandchildren who now that I’m old and grayed

have grown into beautiful people…despite the mistakes I’ve made.

This year I have a great-granddaughter…added to our family mix

A whole new audience waiting…for all my dad jokes and magic tricks.

Yes, even though I have friends and family in every color the rainbow can beget…

I was blessed this year…to add another shade of Violet.

I have been very lucky…truly blessed indeed

for life has set before me…everything I’ll ever need.

That’s why when Deborah asks…I can be so nonchalant.

What can I possibly need when I have everything I want?

My birthday serves as a new beginning…a time each year to realize

that everything I will ever need is right before my eyes.

I imagine there are many people who already know this…at least that’s what I believe

Perhaps that’s why everyone celebrates my birthday…which falls on New Years Eve.

Today is my birthday…a time to reflect not only on this past year

but on my life as well….

as I look back on the 72 years upon this planet I have dwelled.

To ask myself if I am happy with my life…If I’ve done all I’ve wanted to do?

And to help me do this…I revisited a poem I wrote when I was 62:

I’m very lucky…blessed to still be married to my best friend…

and to continue to share a love I know will never end.

I have children whose life I’ve been a part of…who, now that I am old and gray,

still love me in spite of all the mistakes I’ve made along the way.

I have grandchildren who I’ve watched evolve from the time in their playpens

into one proud and strong young woman and three proud and strong young men.

And this year we were blessed to add another member to our family

when my son and I performed our eldest grandson’s wedding 

in the mountains of NC. 

If I’m not mistaken the old poem and this new one seems to show…

I am as happy if not happier than I was I was 10 years ago

So you can see when Deborah asks me what I’d like for my birthday

why I’m so quick to concede…

I’m blessed to already have everything I’ve ever wanted…

everything I’ll ever need.

If I can make one wish this birthday, however, 

it would be…when it comes to my friends and family…

I will still feel as blessed and happy…(or happier)

next year……when I turn 73.