There is nothing I love more than stretching my birthday celebration out over several days. As soon as my daughter is done celebrating her birthday (also this month) I kick off at least a two week celebration of all the things I love: friends, live music and food.
I didn’t always love celebrating my birthday. It wasn’t just the getting older. Okay maybe just a little. But mostly it was just a lack of communication and a list of disappointing events that for a long time convinced me that celebrating my birthday wasn’t a good idea. I remember one time having asked for a sweater for a birthday gift and receiving it… tossed to me still in the bag the sales lady put it in.
Just a few years ago I was still experiencing an unexplainable depression when my birthday rolled around. I just couldn’t rise to the occasion and every year it seemed to get worse.
And then poof… almost 40 years go by and I didn’t have an amazing story to tell about a birthday since I turned 22! I couldn’t let by 40th go by unnoticed. So I hosted a roaring 20’s party. And everyone dressed up. Live musicians played my favorite music from the 1920s. It was amazing and oh so fun! Years of disappointment and weird stress all faded away that night because I took a little action. Even the rain held off.
Now it seems every other year is a theme. Last year I hosted a red, white and blue party to celebrate my newly minted citizenship. Total 4th of July picnic! I loved it. I’m already looking to Pinterest for ideas for next year. Ha!
My Birthday 2018
My birthday celebration kicked off this past weekend at Sweetwater’s 420 Music Festival in Atlanta. It will run for a couple of weeks and includes seeing the Foo Fighter’s this weekend (I can’t freakin wait), brunch at Whiskey Bird and capping off next weekend with an acoustic evening with Andrew McMahon… then I’ll be heading to New Orleans (one of my favorite cities) to produce a piece for The Remarkable Ones.
My Birthday Legacy
Every other year I plan a themed party to help share the joy I now experience. Not just around my birthday but most of the time. My birthday is just a reminder that we can and should celebrate our lives. This very idea of being alive.
My hope is that my daughter will continue to celebrate her birthday like we do when we are younger. To allow the joy we feel on this special day to follow us the rest of the year.
I look forward to my birthday every year because it reminds me of this. It offers one more opportunity to bring people together. To dress up. To have fun. To live!
Blueskies,
Tami