Reflections from my birthday

Morning readers,

As many of you will probably be aware, my birthday was yesterday and like most years, it got me thinking and reflecting on my achievements, current situation, goals and most importantly my mortality.

I remember speaking to a family member a couple of years ago or so about his 30th birthday "party". I put the word party in air marks because he celebrated this birthday by playing a game with his friends that required everyone to write a eulogy for their own selves.

The purpose of the exercise was to make himself and his friends think about what kind of people they want to be remembered as when they die and how close they are to becoming that person.

Now before you all get nervous or excited,  I didn't do that yesterday and am not about to post my eulogy here. I just thought it was a wonderful conversation that I had that deserved a mention in this post.

The things that I would like to talk about are a bit abstract so there will be no particular order as to how these thoughts come out.

1) with each birthday, I have seen more of life and should therefore be a more patient, humble, forgiving and cheerful person.

If any of these things are not increasing with each birthday, then my lifestyle would need a huge evaluation.

2) No matter how old you get, you can still take lessons from the innocence of children. Their satisfaction with playing with packaging rather than the toy that came out is bewildering. Happiness is making the most of what you have rather than finding fault in it by comparing it to others.

3) life is short. If you blink, you can miss it. Therefore it is important to not be stuck in the monotonous routine of day to day existence without making time to work on projects that are important, but not urgent.

4) it is not so important that you have a large number of years in your life. It is infinitely more important to have a large quality of life in your years no matter how many or few they may be.

5) Age well and truly is just a number. People die at all ages. People achieve amazing goals at all ages. I read about an 85 year old woman who learnt to read and write. I have seen pictures of old men with 6 packs. I have read about children who achieve amazing academic success. We are never too old to set a new goal or dream a new dream.

6) finally life is a gift. I didn't do anything to justify my coming into existence. For me to make the most of the gift, I need to become the most of the good potential that sits within me.

This year, eid  (the Muslims celebration at the end of Ramadan) and my birthday were within a few days of each other.

God willing, I will share some reflections on Ramadan in the next few days.

Peace.