Last week was my birthday. We held a quiet celebration at home because I deflected the attention.

Not because it was a milestone I’d rather not face.

Not because I don’t want to admit my age.

There’s no problem with admitting how old I am. I had no control over when I was born, so age doesn’t bother me.

Making my birthday public on social media fuels my paranoia. There’s no reason to willingly hand Big Brother too much personal information.

My grandson’s birthday is three days after mine, and his birthday is a big deal to him. So I decided to hype his birthday up and, as a result, slid mine into the background.

That was a choice I regretted. I should’ve made my birthday special the same way my mom did for every one of her seven children.

On our birthdays, she baked the cake we liked – white cake with chocolate icing for me – and made our favorite dinner – meatloaf and mashed potatoes were my choices.

After our grandchildren arrived, I started downplaying my birthday, thinking it was silly to celebrate “at my age.”

Everyone followed my lead to not make the day a big deal, so I got what I asked for. The day turned out to be just like every other summer day.

Honestly, I felt unimportant.

Later in the evening, I made a decision.

Forget downplaying my birthday.

Forget not wanting to call attention to myself.

Forget the silent martyr.

From now on, I’m going to celebrate whenever I can. Life’s filled with sad and tragic events. When the good things, both big and small, come along, we need to shout for joy and celebrate.

Celebrate: Getting out of bed in the morning. As a teen, getting up was torture. As an older citizen, getting up is still torture but mostly because my knees, ankles, thighs and back ache.

However, there are people who can’t get out of bed, so I need to stop whining and celebrate that I can put both feet on the floor all by myself every morning.

My family. When my boys were young, rambunctious and exhausting, I couldn’t wait for them to grow up and allow me to have some peace and quiet.

They’re grown, and the house is too quiet. There are times I’d trade everything for one afternoon of rocking my babies to sleep, reading them a bedtime story or listening to them and their friends play video games.

Celebrate your relatives. So many people don’t have the chance to see their families. Either their parents have passed away, live on the other side of the country or past misunderstandings have separated them.

Your parents will not live forever. Talk to them about their favorites growing up – songs, collections, musical groups, subjects in school. Just talk and listen. I’d love one more afternoon of talking with my grandparents or listening to my dad tell another corny Cajun joke.

Celebrate friends. At this end of the birthday spectrum, friends move away to begin a new chapter after retirement or, like me, become consumed with grandchildren or elderly parents. Many pass away, leaving us with regrets that we didn’t visit more often.

The key word is regret.

So from now on, jump in water puddles.

Play the radio loud and sing along.

Dance in the kitchen.

Take a chance.

Celebrate life.

Find a reason to laugh out loud.

And, most of all, celebrate your birthday.

Look out July 27, 2020. I’m comin’ for you, bells and whistles blazing.

 

This column was originally published in The Fort Bend Herald.