Sending Out a Grateful Birthday Wish
On my birthday today, I recognize that it’s such a powerful experience to share our thanks to people in person so that we both can enjoy that deeper sense of connection and powerful meaning that gratitude carries. But it can do amazing things for us as individuals to simply register our thanks for the people we can’t thank in person, because gratitude sets on a trajectory where life can be innately richer and relationships deeper.
Today’s my birthday, and I’m getting to an age where being a year older isn’t necessarily such a thrilling thing. But I have a tradition of going on a couple of outdoor adventures, eat some good food, and pick some red haven peaches which, when perfectly ripe, I’d have to say is a food that I like as much as any other.
But I also love to take birthdays as special days for me to evaluate where my life is heading and to reflect back on the past year. And this week I’ve been struck by how many small and good things happen every day. I’m talking about those sorts of experiences that we usually don’t consider worthy of writing about in our journals, but they brought a small amount of joy into our lives. So on this day, as I start a new year, I’d love to show some appreciation for those small but good things that have come into my life and almost always don’t deserve but appreciate the best I can.
I’m grateful for grocery store clerks who seem pleased to see me and smile even though their work days are so long and hard. People in their cars who drive around me who I don’t know but appreciate their care and when they show patience and kindness. The friends who take the extra time to comment on this blog or on my social media posts who share insights that take my thoughts so much further. The coworkers who daily brighten my work experience by realizing that before we are employees, we are all people worthy of building relationships with.
I’m grateful for the family members who send me texts or notes just to let me know they were thinking of me. For my nephews and nieces who let me hang out with them even though I am so old and getting less and less cool every day. For the lady I consistently run into in the morning when I go for my runs in the park next door to me who smiles and says hello. For my opportunities to serve others in small ways each day that give me little jolts of meaning each time. For the health professionals and therapists and other professionals that help me feel the best I can physically so I can focus on other things than pain or illness. And for all the entrepreneurs who work so hard to keep shops open that I enjoy visiting: the cafes and restaurants and favorite lunch spots and shoe stores that make my life so much more convenient. And the organizers of the farmer’s markets and arts festivals and other communities events that they don’t have to work so hard to organize but I’m so glad they do.
On my birthday today, I recognize that it’s such a powerful experience to share our thanks to people in person so that we both can enjoy that deeper sense of connection and powerful meaning that gratitude carries. But it can do amazing things for us as individuals to simply register our thanks for the people we can’t thank in person, because gratitude sets on a trajectory where life can be innately richer and relationships deeper.