32 Years

It felt good to not dread my birthday, as I did last year, to be in a better place where it was a cause for celebration, joy, and play and not dread at turning another year older. I spent all morning alone (with Olive, so not really alone), treating myself to a breakfast burrito and a latte, perusing the Browser racks, and taking Olive for a cross-country ski. I talked to my parents and friends on the phone, felt loved through emails, texts and Facebook, and relished the time by myself, time to just think.

I spent my afternoon in a three hour yoga workshop. It was amazing and the perfect gift to myself. One of my goals this year is to release myself to the powers and connections of yoga, to bring that activity into my life and see how it changes my relationship to myself, others, activities, and daily occurrences. We did handstands (which terrify me. I think that my mom brought me to gymnastics once and that was enough. I can't even do a somersault correctly) and many, many backbends which stretched my body and my mind.

The evening was spent with good friends, with good food and fun cheesy dance music. Birthdays really are about feeling the love from those in your life, from those all over the world and right in front of you, of honoring the fact that you were brought into the world to live a life.