It’s that time of year again, that time where I have to remember that I am a year older. I used to
wait for birthdays, especially when I was 15 but now they are just another day. I find they really do
adhere to that old adage about a ‘Watched pot never boils”. When your waiting for them they take for
ever but if you don’t care that much they come hopping down the road like rabbits.
I will admit guilt right from the start, I have not finished a project that I started on my birthday
last year. It came about as a challenge from one of my clients and I know she will remind me as soon as
this is posted.
Facebook has allowed for everyone you have ever met and a few more to know it is your birth
day and send you the appropriate (or inappropriate) greeting. People that I have hardly met send a
birthday greeting and that is nice. I question the sincerity of some of these wishes that is just the cynic in
me I am sure.
Last year, and this time I told a client I was taking the time to write down a memory I had
about each of the persons who send me a birthday greeting. I said that would provide a good use of time,
bring back some happy memories and provide a notebook that would be fun to look at in the following
years.
Just like so many things in life, the task has taken more time than I expected. Sure, the first
couple were easy, and I was excited about the project. It was fun! Then like with most things the shiny
wore off and it became more of a task. The people were not less important but my approach changed and
it got tougher to sit down and make a withdrawal from the memory bank. In fact it got to the point that the
light brown moleskin notebook I had chosen for the task got to the bottom of the pile and did not get
opened.
A few months ago the self imposed isolation came along and I got to looking for things in my
office. I came across the scribbler with the notes about my friends and a favorite memory of each, it was
only half a year and already they had increased in value perhaps that was brought about by the fact we
could no longer visit, but many of these people I had not seen for years when we could travel. The fact I
could not visit was not the reason, I did not go when I could so that excuse held no water.
I am back working on the book and recording a memory about each one of the people that send
me a Birthday Greeting. Please do not take this as a plea for birthday wishes but rather as a push to do
something like that for yourself and your friends.
Record the memories of those favorite people in your life, they may not mean much to some of
those people but then again they might and sometimes you write for yourself.