It’s my birthday today.  Most of my adult life I have been less than thrilled with birthdays (outside the great excuse for eating lots of chocolate cake).  On my twenty-first birthday I happened to pick up an issue of Cosmopolitan magazine, which just happened to have an article – swear to God! – about how physically, it’s all downhill after twenty one.

But life is nothing, if not an interesting journey, right?  This morning I woke up, and in my still dream-fogged brain, this thought occurred to me:  I am not so much getting older, as I am getting more practice at living well and good and happily (most of the time. . .or at least, a proportionately larger percent of the time).  I credit my friend Bob Lee as the reason for this new insight.  He posted a birthday message to me last night that said, Happy 21st again! You must be so good at having those birthdays now. It must have sunk in while I was sleeping.

So, yeah.  Happy Birthday to me!  I am the star of my day today.

The ‘Moose hat” picture explained: This was at a fancy dress party (costume party here in the US) at the Fforde Ffiesta June, 2012. I was ‘Moose’ Havisham (a combo of Transient Moose and Miss Havisham who are both characters in Jasper Fforde books. I won first place.

It is also my sister’s birthday today.  We are not twins, but we are near twins.  Irish twins, some people tell us, as we are one year apart to the day.  Sharing a birthday was not always easy for us.  Kids do not like sharing birthday gifts, which was something we occasionally had to do.  And we have very different personalities and interests.  About the only trait we have in common is stubbornness, so you can guess how well we got along.

To add to the illusion of our twin-ness, my mother dressed us alike until we revolted.

But we are grown-ups now, we get along really well and enjoy each other’s company when we can spend time together.  And we never, ever have to share birthday gifts anymore.  Which is good, because she is getting lobster and tequila for her birthday, neither of which I like and one of those things I’m allergic to.  And this is what I got today for my birthday, because I am an avid Dr. Who fan.

Care to guess what I plan on keeping in my Tardis?

So, here’s to me and here’s to my birthday twin.  May we live our lives guided by love.

Cheers, y’all!