ANOTHER ANNUAL BIRTHDAY POST

MUSINGS OF ANOTHER TRIP AROUND THE SUN AND GETTING EVER SO OLDER

Fifty-seven years breathing on this planet.

At least as of this coming Tuesday as of this writing.

I saw this TV show where a character told someone to,

“Celebrate your birthdays. They’re precious.”

Which I completely agree with and which I certainly do;

I definitely make it a point to give thanks to God for letting me see another age when I wake up on the morning of June 18th;

In other words, show my appreciation for continuing to be able to breathe and be in relatively decent health.

I must be honest, however…

Every year, every passing day, very much seems to go faster and faster.

Which I sometimes, well…

Don’t always have the easiest time with, particularly since it seemed to go so much slower during the first forty years or so of this lifetime of mine,

Especially my formative years in Riverside and Santa Monica.

Also,

Another source of my not being completely, 100,000% ecstatic is the sense that once in a while, I feel that I failed in life in general.

Failed in being a true adult, at least in certain areas.

I won’t go into any details except to say that most of my peers that are my age and in my age group have achieved certain life milestones that I failed to achieve and will probably never achieve.

Which having been mainstreamed since age six, being neurodiverse while living among neurotypicals for over fifty years,

Though I know I shouldn’t compare myself to others, I can’t help but feel negatively about it all at times.

Most of all, I’ve felt – and in certain ways still feel – that due to the way my brain was and is wired, I’ve always been behind my peers in certain aspects of life;

If you know me and are reading this, you can probably figure out what those aspects are.

Since I can’t really do anything about how my brain is wired and my neurodiversity, I’m glad to say that I haven’t had any real depressed moments stemming from my situations as of late, in the grand tradition of not feeling stressed or bad in general about things you can’t change as my prominent musings about approaching another birthday lie in this…

The fact that I and my peers are rapidly approaching sixty – three years hence in my case and the case of all those who graduated high school with me in 1985 and went to school with me in the 1970s and 80s,

And that too many of those peers are no longer with us, passing away in various ways and from various causes.

It’s still difficult for me to believe, and it still saddens me,

That so many folks I grew up with are gone, and gone way too soon.

It makes me feel that much more appreciative of being alive, thanking the Lord for keeping me on his wake-up list.

That’s going to be a main sentiment of mine as my birthday approaches,

Along with partaking of the plans I have for getting to add another candle on the proverbial cake, which is to…

• Have Chinese food along with birthday cake this weekend
• Go to a friend’s house on the actual day – my birthday’s on a Tuesday this year – and do various fun stuff like go to the batting cages and (in particular) watch something that has been a personal birthday tradition…

Watching my DVD (it was a VHS tape until a few years ago) of the classic rock documentary Monterey Pop, the first ever rock festival that was held in Monterey, CA the weekend I was born in 1967,

With the following acts performing literally the day I was born:

• Janis Joplin
• Buffalo Springfield
• The Who
• The Mamas and the Papas, and…
• Jimi Hendrix, who blew everyone away when he burned and smashed his guitar on stage

I think that sounds like a pretty decent way to mark the anniversary of when I was born.

My big prayer is that God will allow me to see many, many, many more birthdays on this planet.

That’s about all I have to say about it all.

I certainly hope and pray that I do indeed have a Happy Birthday…