The Birth of the Ageless You

The other day, my beautiful 50+ year old friend apologized for forgetting my birthday. I am horrible with dates in general, and ever since the pleasure of having a birthday week went away with friends moving away, me moving away, and more elder parent responsibilities, birthdays have been sort of mediocre and not that important. "What do we need these for anyway? Why do we feel we have to celebrate this inevitable march toward death? And more importantly, why are we encouraged to?" I asked. My friend agreed and stated that she never remembers her age and when she does she thinks, "That has nothing to do with me!". Frankly, if I didn't know any better, 18 would be my guess - not 51. She said, "So the next time I wonder if I've missed your birthday, I'm just going to send you a message that says, HAPPY AGELESS YOU!" ...and a new artistic collection was born.

My friend, Raven E Black, (The Reluctant Tarot Card Reader - Amazon.com) is a writer and tarot card genius, and runs Shivaya Wellness. She gives excellent "in-the-moment" advice based on current energies (there is only now anyway) and has written a bookshelf's worth of books about her life and what she has learned running around on planet Earth. So when she comes up with an idea and says, "RUN WITH IT!" you just should.

After we threw around some ideas and shared a sketch or two, I really started to think about why it is we celebrate birthdays. We are told to, was my first response. We are given cards to send, presents to buy...we feel bad when we forget the day our dear friend or family member came into the world making it a better (or worse lol) place. When I was in my 20's and 30's birthdays were a week long, filled with trips to the Chinese Buffet, massages, and pampering by dear friends who took the opportunity to show how much they loved you. But as I got older, birthdays became hurried things, and small wishes from far-flung friends...just not very fun. Where was all the love?

It turns out, the fun of birthdays was the love and celebration with friends, which can happen at any time. Who cares that we were born? Everyone was born! Nothing new to see here! What is special is that we take the time to step out of our busy lives and love the people we love - really show them. This love, is timeless, ageless...never goes away, because it is everything - the makeup of the whole universe. And it is this that I propose we celebrate! Let us remind each other that our lives are not solemn marches toward isolation and death... but instead celebrations of the wisdom we've gained, the interesting road we've traveled, the love we've accumulated, what we've learned from loss, and the things we've been able to pick up and put down along the way. It's quite an accomplishment! And better yet, we're still here to tell the tale!

Look out for beautiful new cards and planners based all around this idea of ageless and free, because I'd rather be reminded that I'm special to someone for all that I've done and not that I will be turning 52!