Yes, absolutely beautiful. My mom made a big deal out of birthdays 🎂. When I was 24, two years after graduating UC Berkeley, I started preparing a business out of my being a Birthday Princess. I was living in Washington DC and doing lots of parties around the entire Metro area. When my dad realized I had no intention of following him into insurance, he promptly started having heart incidents and insisted I move back to California.
A reporter from the Washington Post called to write an article about me. He'd heard about me. Once I shared I was moving back to California he immediately let his interest wane.
I spent another year performing in California but had opposition from my dad.
I still believe birthdays are our sacred personal New Years. I studied and gathered quite a treasure trove about birthdays around the world from the Library of Congress. I had the dress, the wand, made one of a kind cards for my celebrants, many of them keeping these one-of-a-kind's for a really long time. I still have my wand in a wooden box especially made for it by someone who believed in my mission.
There is an adorable Chinese Korean girl in my building about to turn 7 on May 15th (515 is one of the numbers for angels). I have a 99 Cent (a fun store we have here, now everything starts at $1.49) tiara and pair of sunglasses with Birthday Princess emblazoned on each, sitting over on the bookshelf across from me which I will give to her on her day. She seems to like what I give her on her birthday. I have a grandnephew turning 7, 20 blocks from here, on 3/16 and I'm trying to prepare something for him as well.
I am now 64. None of my elders can call me on the phone anymore. Surprisingly, I still get lots of love round the year from those who used to call me on that day. I wanted to mention also, that I knew I needed more solitude. I knew when my mom stopped calling 6 or 7 times a day (some days) I'd be relieved yet miss her. I miss my elders but feel they are still with me. I never feel alone. I have a number of special friends with sacred missions. It's just a path I chose and regret not a minute of it.
I wish we could sit down in person.
I still cherish my birthday, and yes, it has changed. I'm a quadruple Sagittarius. Foot-in-mouth times four. I'm very honest and don't make tons of small talk. I no longer get obligatory calls and I have an answering machine, if I do. I still know and choose exactly how I most want to live MY DAY. I've given it away many times in the past. I believe each year we can use it to get closer to our vision of ourself we most want to be and breathe! Big hug for you. Love your honesty and your deep thinking and ability to pull all your writing together, and your readers along with you!
PS I also believe those who love us can still pay homage to us throughout our birthday week, and month! Plus, it's also kind of cool to recognize your day every month! Many believe around the world that the week before your birthday your soul leaves your body on the earth plane and goes up to check on where you are in the Akashic records... and how to navigate the road ahead. Many also believe the year is split up into 7 52-day periods. The 7th cycle, starting 52 days before your birthday, one moves into the most contemplative zone of the year.
I'm sorry I wrote so much but birthdays are big in my book and you writing this reminded me just how big.
Wow, thank you for sharing the evolution of your birthday. From 7 to 64--yours has been a most remarkable trajectory. It's fascinating to look back on your life through the lens of your birthday--I love that you think of it as a 'sacred personal New Year'.
"None of my elders can call me on the phone anymore"--this hit me. Perhaps my birthdays are yet to change as starkly as yours have. Perhaps one day I will be able to cherish my birthday, too, despite the many ways in which it will continue to change.
Saw this and thought you might like it: Social Skills: Episode 1
In our first episode of Social Skills, Diaspora Co. Founder and CEO Sana Javeri Kadri, shares how she built a successful direct-to-consumer spice brand from the ground up. 🌶
Like so many business owners, Sana wears many hats, including that of a social media manager, and has spent tons of time testing and learning social strategies to refine her knowledge of what works. To learn more about Sana’s top social media tips, read on by clicking the link below.
Birthdays have been a source of quiet, gloomy dread for me since at least my mid-20s. Unfortunately, I'm having another one in two days. I'm a sworn enemy of Time in general, never feeling there are enough hours in the day or days in the month, and birthdays are just another reminder of all the potential I still haven't followed through on and experiences I still haven't had. I think a lot of some people's fear of aging stems from a feeling that they've wasted their youth and will never get another chance, and while I wouldn't go nearly as far as 'wasted', I can't help feeling I grew up too quickly in some ways and too slowly in others, and have often let fear hold me back from pursuing my desires. Birthdays, then, are just another reminder that I have to completely accept myself as I both am now and have been. I wouldn't have any of the stuff I like without the stuff I struggle to like.
I share much of the same sentiment that you have described so aptly. I, too, feel like "I grew up too quickly in some ways and too slowly in others". Perhaps every instance that reminds us of our mortality is masked with a celebration of having survived. And then we're surprised when we can't simply "have fun" on our birthday!
Its author may not exactly be a role model these days, but a good line's a good line, and I always try to remind myself that 'Everything I'm not made me everything I am' 🙂
Birthdays were not made much of in our growing years and in my aging years at every birthday my mother would remind us that you are not that particular age but, you have completed that year and the next year is already beckoning.
That age is just a number is I think spoken out of an anxiety about passing years.
Richa I enjoy reading your work and am looking forward to the next one.
Thank you, Purnima, for your comment. I greatly value your readership.
It was on my twelfth birthday that I was first acquainted with the concept of having “completed” a certain age and having moved onto the next number. I was baffled by the apparent lack of logic, but I was just as thrilled because it meant that I had turned not twelve but thirteen years old. And surely teenagers were to be taking more seriously than children!
i always felt you are wiser than your age even when you were barely 20. I have never been wiser than my age. So in that regard, at least, i am younger (less wiser) than you.
To be honest, i am always confused with birthdays; what are we measuring when we complete each year; the years that had gone by or the years that are left. The wealth and knowledge we accumulated? or the fat and wrinkles we had accumulated?
It is for the wiser people to think, i think.
for now, i am measuring my days in weekdays and weekends as i work.
Hope to reach a day when i will just have days without any prefixes.
It's interesting that you ask this question--perhaps we'd like to believe that we're celebrating the years gone by. We marvel at having survived, we marvel at having made it so far. But it is difficult to ignore that the number of years left, the numbers of chances we've got, is dwindling.
P.S. I hate to break it to you, but in being similarly wise beyond your years, you are not in any way younger than I am.
There is a quiet poignance in birthdays as we enter 30s. What you’ve written mark the usual exciting stuff of holidays and celebrations normal and matter of fact. You turn poignance into reflection with your words. I guess this is what they call aging gracefully. Beautiful piece. ❤️
Yes, absolutely beautiful. My mom made a big deal out of birthdays 🎂. When I was 24, two years after graduating UC Berkeley, I started preparing a business out of my being a Birthday Princess. I was living in Washington DC and doing lots of parties around the entire Metro area. When my dad realized I had no intention of following him into insurance, he promptly started having heart incidents and insisted I move back to California.
A reporter from the Washington Post called to write an article about me. He'd heard about me. Once I shared I was moving back to California he immediately let his interest wane.
I spent another year performing in California but had opposition from my dad.
I still believe birthdays are our sacred personal New Years. I studied and gathered quite a treasure trove about birthdays around the world from the Library of Congress. I had the dress, the wand, made one of a kind cards for my celebrants, many of them keeping these one-of-a-kind's for a really long time. I still have my wand in a wooden box especially made for it by someone who believed in my mission.
There is an adorable Chinese Korean girl in my building about to turn 7 on May 15th (515 is one of the numbers for angels). I have a 99 Cent (a fun store we have here, now everything starts at $1.49) tiara and pair of sunglasses with Birthday Princess emblazoned on each, sitting over on the bookshelf across from me which I will give to her on her day. She seems to like what I give her on her birthday. I have a grandnephew turning 7, 20 blocks from here, on 3/16 and I'm trying to prepare something for him as well.
I am now 64. None of my elders can call me on the phone anymore. Surprisingly, I still get lots of love round the year from those who used to call me on that day. I wanted to mention also, that I knew I needed more solitude. I knew when my mom stopped calling 6 or 7 times a day (some days) I'd be relieved yet miss her. I miss my elders but feel they are still with me. I never feel alone. I have a number of special friends with sacred missions. It's just a path I chose and regret not a minute of it.
I wish we could sit down in person.
I still cherish my birthday, and yes, it has changed. I'm a quadruple Sagittarius. Foot-in-mouth times four. I'm very honest and don't make tons of small talk. I no longer get obligatory calls and I have an answering machine, if I do. I still know and choose exactly how I most want to live MY DAY. I've given it away many times in the past. I believe each year we can use it to get closer to our vision of ourself we most want to be and breathe! Big hug for you. Love your honesty and your deep thinking and ability to pull all your writing together, and your readers along with you!
PS I also believe those who love us can still pay homage to us throughout our birthday week, and month! Plus, it's also kind of cool to recognize your day every month! Many believe around the world that the week before your birthday your soul leaves your body on the earth plane and goes up to check on where you are in the Akashic records... and how to navigate the road ahead. Many also believe the year is split up into 7 52-day periods. The 7th cycle, starting 52 days before your birthday, one moves into the most contemplative zone of the year.
I'm sorry I wrote so much but birthdays are big in my book and you writing this reminded me just how big.
Wow, thank you for sharing the evolution of your birthday. From 7 to 64--yours has been a most remarkable trajectory. It's fascinating to look back on your life through the lens of your birthday--I love that you think of it as a 'sacred personal New Year'.
"None of my elders can call me on the phone anymore"--this hit me. Perhaps my birthdays are yet to change as starkly as yours have. Perhaps one day I will be able to cherish my birthday, too, despite the many ways in which it will continue to change.
Saw this and thought you might like it: Social Skills: Episode 1
In our first episode of Social Skills, Diaspora Co. Founder and CEO Sana Javeri Kadri, shares how she built a successful direct-to-consumer spice brand from the ground up. 🌶
Like so many business owners, Sana wears many hats, including that of a social media manager, and has spent tons of time testing and learning social strategies to refine her knowledge of what works. To learn more about Sana’s top social media tips, read on by clicking the link below.
https://go.fb.me/Social-Skills
Birthdays have been a source of quiet, gloomy dread for me since at least my mid-20s. Unfortunately, I'm having another one in two days. I'm a sworn enemy of Time in general, never feeling there are enough hours in the day or days in the month, and birthdays are just another reminder of all the potential I still haven't followed through on and experiences I still haven't had. I think a lot of some people's fear of aging stems from a feeling that they've wasted their youth and will never get another chance, and while I wouldn't go nearly as far as 'wasted', I can't help feeling I grew up too quickly in some ways and too slowly in others, and have often let fear hold me back from pursuing my desires. Birthdays, then, are just another reminder that I have to completely accept myself as I both am now and have been. I wouldn't have any of the stuff I like without the stuff I struggle to like.
I share much of the same sentiment that you have described so aptly. I, too, feel like "I grew up too quickly in some ways and too slowly in others". Perhaps every instance that reminds us of our mortality is masked with a celebration of having survived. And then we're surprised when we can't simply "have fun" on our birthday!
Its author may not exactly be a role model these days, but a good line's a good line, and I always try to remind myself that 'Everything I'm not made me everything I am' 🙂
Haha, true enough! (Kanye West?)
The same 😁
Birthdays were not made much of in our growing years and in my aging years at every birthday my mother would remind us that you are not that particular age but, you have completed that year and the next year is already beckoning.
That age is just a number is I think spoken out of an anxiety about passing years.
Richa I enjoy reading your work and am looking forward to the next one.
Thank you, Purnima, for your comment. I greatly value your readership.
It was on my twelfth birthday that I was first acquainted with the concept of having “completed” a certain age and having moved onto the next number. I was baffled by the apparent lack of logic, but I was just as thrilled because it meant that I had turned not twelve but thirteen years old. And surely teenagers were to be taking more seriously than children!
i always felt you are wiser than your age even when you were barely 20. I have never been wiser than my age. So in that regard, at least, i am younger (less wiser) than you.
To be honest, i am always confused with birthdays; what are we measuring when we complete each year; the years that had gone by or the years that are left. The wealth and knowledge we accumulated? or the fat and wrinkles we had accumulated?
It is for the wiser people to think, i think.
for now, i am measuring my days in weekdays and weekends as i work.
Hope to reach a day when i will just have days without any prefixes.
It's interesting that you ask this question--perhaps we'd like to believe that we're celebrating the years gone by. We marvel at having survived, we marvel at having made it so far. But it is difficult to ignore that the number of years left, the numbers of chances we've got, is dwindling.
P.S. I hate to break it to you, but in being similarly wise beyond your years, you are not in any way younger than I am.
There is a quiet poignance in birthdays as we enter 30s. What you’ve written mark the usual exciting stuff of holidays and celebrations normal and matter of fact. You turn poignance into reflection with your words. I guess this is what they call aging gracefully. Beautiful piece. ❤️
Thank you! Yet another way to unravel the meaning of the nebulous phrase "ageing gracefully". <3