Happy Birthday - October 15, 2008

I celebrated my birthday this year in Seattle. This was a special occasion for me and my niece Jordan. Most of you know that we share the birthday, October 15th. She was born in 1987 and I was born in 1948, so do the math and you will see that it was a special day for both of us and we got to celebrate it together.

There to help us celebrate were Stephen (behind the camera), my dear son Justin and Jordan’s parents, my beautiful sister Kay and brother-in-law Chris. I got birthday greeting phone calls from Angela and Andrea, so my day was complete.



What a special time. We had nothing but fun, good conversation, great food and a totally relaxing week.



I think the following poem is a perfect one for our birthday, enjoy.

Messenger

My work is loving the world.
Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird —
equal seekers of sweetness.
Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums.
Here the clam deep in the speckled sand.

Are my boots old? Is my coat torn?
Am I no longer young, and still not half-perfect? Let me
keep my mind on what matters,
which is my work,

which is mostly standing still and learning to be
astonished.
The phoebe, the delphinium.
The sheep in the pasture, and the pasture.
Which is mostly rejoicing, since all ingredients are here,

which is gratitude, to be given a mind and a heart
and these body-clothes,
a mouth with which to give shouts of joy
to the moth and the wren, to the sleepy dug-up clam,
telling them all, over and over, how it is
that we live forever.


~ Mary Oliver ~