A Year of Gratitude – February 27, 2024

My gratitude was a gift I gave myself for my birthday today. I turned 51. It’s an age that the world tells me I should whisper, but here I am sharing it loudly with thousands of you.

I am, as always, the youngest I will ever be again and the oldest I have ever been. Both things are true and I try to honor both ends of that continuum most days, but especially today.

I’m not ashamed of my age. I’ve worked hard to get here, to complete another trip around the sun and still be standing to blow out the dozens of candles on my birthday cake. And so, I intend to take a deep breath, make a wish, and blow out the candles.

Tomorrow, I will wake up and start the first day of another year. I see grand opportunities ahead. I intend to meet this year with an open heart, a sense of purpose, and the hope that it will be a year filled with joy and time spent with the people I love.

I am so fortunate to be loved by them in return. I was reminded of that today when my mom made me a delicious birthday cake and a handmade quilt to commemorate this past year. Mother Nature gave me a gorgeous day with warm weather and abundant sunshine. We made the most of it. We took a walk in the woods, spent time outside enjoying the sunshine, and took Penny Lane on a long walk.

On our walk, the grackles were out making their unique call and we stopped to listen. I stood still, closed my eyes, and turned my face towards the warm sun. I took a deep breath and just listened to them.

I don’t know if you are familiar with the birdsong of a grackle. It sounds like a rusty hinge, like an old gate swinging on its hinge. I have always been taken by it. It simply doesn’t sound like any other birdsong I have heard.

In that moment, I imagined an old gate swinging on a rusty hinge as I listened to their call. I imagined that the year ahead was through that gate, that it was swinging open to let me walk through and discover what lies ahead.

I opened my eyes and we started walking again. Penny Lane was happy to get moving, to start exploring the world together by moving forward on our walk. I’m sure that she wondered why I had stopped for so long.

She knows that you have to keep moving forward to discover new and wonderful things. We learn that lesson on every walk. Thanks to her and the sound of the grackles, I remembered that lesson today.

Thanks to my family, I was also reminded of how lucky I am to spend my days with people who love me, people who I can count on to be there for me when I need them. That’s such an easy reason for me to be filled with gratitude each and every day.

I am also grateful to all of you. You give me a reason to keep moving forward and keep discovering beauty and gratitude to share with you. It’s such a gift and I am so thankful.

I hope that your day gave you something wonderful to be grateful for. Here’s to discovering more gratitude by walking forward together.

This post is part of our A Year of Gratitude Series. You can find the introduction, inspiration, and entire year’s gratitude’s posts here.