I just turned 34 years old, considering that my birthday is in 1988. Some quick thoughts:
What makes a perfect day?
Birthdays are funny because the general concept in America is that on your birthday, it should be optimized for you to have a perfect day.
Yesterday on my birthday, what did I do? Enjoy a nice walk with Seneca, had some good coffee, treating myself by doing some intense kettlebell swings, and attempted to go on a hike.
If I wanted something, I would have already bought it
Also the general concept is that on your birthday, you want presents. You want people to give you stuff, or treat you out.
But this is what I realized: I don’t really want or need anything. In fact, I pride myself and having less stuff. Therefore ironically, maybe the best present would be actually taking something off of my hands, or helping me get rid of something.
The privilege of being out and about
I’m actually happiest when I’m out and about, when I’m walking, taking photos, or exploring.
And this is the the funny thing I realized for my birthday: the best way for me to treat myself is in fact, to do something active. For example, working out, going on a walk, going on a hike, essentially doing something.
Your birthday is actually the day that your mom gave birth to you
Cindy told me something very interesting, it is that on our birthday — it is actually the day to celebrate our mothers. Why? The amount of pain and labor that they had to put forth to bring us into the world, this is the greatest present of all time.
Therefore my general idea is that perhaps on our actual birthday, it is best for us to call our mom, and show gratitude to our moms, and maybe treat out our moms instead.
Maybe we should live our lives as if every day were our birthday?
I think the general concept of a birthday is that we are grateful to be alive. We are grateful that our parents gave birth to us, and we are grateful for existence. Therefore, isn’t the best thing for us to celebrate each and every single day, like in fact it was our birthday?
