Whenever the time comes for my birthday, I am filled with an immense sense of gratitude for so many things. As my grandmother would always say, “Tomorrow is not promised” and I am so thankful to see yet another revolution around the sun. As the various birthday wishes roll in throughout the day, I am reminded of the countless numbers of friends, new and old, who think of me and smile. I am filled with so many waves of gratitude throughout the day for family and friends who send messages reminding me of just how much I mean to them. What a blessing it is to see another year.
Some friends get really down around the time of their birthdays. They lament about where they are in their professional lives or missed opportunities in their personal lives. For my birthday, I prefer to focus on the myriad of ways my cup runneth over with blessings and opportunities. I don’t know all the blessings in store for me, so I don’t know if I am “behind” in any aspect of my life. My birthday is a time for me to reflect on all I have done in these four plus decades of my life, the friends I have accumulated along the way, the family members I still have in my life to celebrate these milestones with, and so much more.
Last year I spent my birthday with dear friends and their family in Portugal. I ate sardines and lots of fish, and had family members serenade me in songs I had never heard and didn’t know the words to. I allowed myself to be spoiled for the day. I played in bubbles in a town square and drank wine and sat in a vintage tractor, and just allowed myself to feel free and grateful and present.
I don’t know what’s in store for my birthday this year, but I will be with those same friends and the same family. The kids will be a little bigger, their parents will be a bit older…as will I. I will mark the passage of time and measure it in laughter and all of the ways I learned this year and the new friends I have made and the absolute gratitude I feel to have had my family with me for another year. This past year I made a few very good friends, who also happen to be Cancers, and it makes me smile knowing that my spirit is still open to receive new friends into my orbit.
So, to my fellow Cancerians, happy birthday! And to those who are dreading an upcoming birthday, try measuring it in all of the ways you have expanded your world this past year, in micro and macro ways.
Christina Greer, Ph.D., is an associate professor at Fordham University; author of book “How to Build a Democracy: From Fannie Lou Hamer and Barbara Jordan to Stacey Abrams” and “Black Ethnics: Race, Immigration, and the Pursuit of the American Dream” and is co-host of the podcast FAQ-NYC.