Half-Birthday

Today is my half-birthday!

I know that the idea of the half-birthday may be weird to some, but to me, it’s an important celebration.  My real birthday is on the winter solstice, December 21. It's the shortest day of the year, and the outside is usually dark, cold, and jammed with people getting ready for Christmas. My half-birthday, by contrast, is on the longest day of the year. Outside, it’s usually warm and sunny. People are in a great mood and the day goes on until well into the night.

I love the way both solstices celebrate the light. They both are beautiful marks of the time of year, on where the sun is in the sky. What could be better than to share your birthday with such celebrations?
 



This year, my half birthday holds kind of a special meaning to me. Today, I am half-way to 50. In six months, I’ll mark the day that I’ve been walking around the planet for half a century. Yikes.

When I turned 49, I made list of things to do before I turn 50. A bucket list of sorts. I read this list in my journal and saw some pretty grand plans. Find a new job, get in shape, publish an article. Somehow, this list was my guide to turning 50. If I could knock off all these things on the list, then turning 50 would be, what, okay?




Thankfully, I came across the wise soul Jennifer Louden. She led the retreat I was on a few months ago, and recently did a thoughtful blog post on creating a Thimble List. Yes, a Thimble List.  As she beautifully defines it:

A list of very small ways to savor life. 

I define savoring as mindfulness + gratitude = touching your essential goodness.


So, rather than coming up with some grand plan on all that I needed to accomplish by the time I turn 50, I am spending the next six months savoring the small.  For example, on my half birthday, I just might:

•  Celebrate, not curse, the birds that wake me at 4:00
•  Call a few friends and discover, for the millionth time, what a miracle it is that I get to experience  these people in my life.
• Make my little E laugh and really listen to the sound of her laughter. Take in the way her eyes shine.
• Write, and then maybe write some more. Just to experience the good feelings that come from creating.
• Buy a new lipstick. Something summery.

This is actually a pretty aggressive list for a thimble list, but what the heck, it’s my half-birthday. I’ll ease up tomorrow.

It seems to me that we spend a lot of time planning and thinking about what’s next, what we need to accomplish to be good, to be worthy. There is certainly room in life for huge goals like running the Boston Marathon or seeing polar bears in Antarctica. But creating a list like the Thimble List opens us up to all the small, spectacular miracles that cross our path each day; the beautiful little gifts we sometimes miss when we’re focused on our big, huge accomplishments.

Even if it’s not your half-birthday, you can make a thimble list. Just be open to what gets presented - look at a flower, taste the strawberries in season, hear your own laughter. Oh, and maybe do some calculations to see when your half-birthday is. Just so you have one more beautiful thing to add to your thimble list.