Upward and Onward

I watched yesterday as a hot air balloon floated above our house on a sunny yet frigid January day. Two men leaned over the basket taking in the view from the skies, their perspective far different than mine was from the ground. Today is my birthday and my perspective as the years add up is also far different than it was when I stood at the starting line as an adult.

One of my favourite patients at the moment is a frail, old man near ninety who has been robbed of speech fluency by a stroke. He struggles to form each thought and sentence and I must stop, sit and listen carefully to each word he manages to say. He is very appreciative and thanked me one day for my patience with him. I told him it was not hard because I am not all that far behind him and would want to be treated the same way if I had a disability.

"Yes", he agreed. "Inside I feel like I am still in my fifties. Those were good years when my family was grown, my career was at its peak and my health was good."

I have learned that I don't need "things" to be happy and it is not gifts or an expensive dinner that make a birthday special.

My husband came home with a bouquet of flowers, a card and fresh, out of season cherries for me.

At the stroke of midnight I received birthday greetings from Mom and Dad and Ginger, part of an ongoing avalanche of special greetings from special friends.

My daughter emerged to give me a big hug and didn't make a comment about my age.

The sun shone briefly through clouds for me at dawn as I put seed and suet out for the birds illuminating the snow covered trees and bunny tracks below.

I got a Kindle for my birthday and the first book I downloaded from Amazon was a newly released title by Ann Voskamp, a blogger, farmer's wife and mother of six children from south-western Ontario. She endeavoured to write down one thousand blessings over the year and found that the daily exercise of expressing gratitude for small things changed her profoundly. One Thousand Gifts is a beautiful and inspiring read and the simple concept is something I would like to embrace.

Dad, my brother Philip, me, Aunt Lois

...But one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind 

and reaching forward to those things which are ahead,  

I press toward the goal for the prize of the

upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 

Philippians 3: 13,14