Birthday Snapshot

I will soon celebrate my birthday.  Most years on this late April date, I find myself in a thoughtful, contemplative mood.  For me, a birthday is a time of taking stock: Just who have I become at this age and stage of my life? What’s going on for me at this exact moment? It’s time for a snapshot.

My birthday season is not a time of remembering; reminiscence lives in the quiet of my wintertime. Nor is it a time of thinking out the future.  For the most part, I reserve looking ahead for the abundant summertime.

This year’s birthday snapshot reveals an older gent who is content and most often, at ease. The words of William James could readily be the caption under my photo this year:

I am done with great things and big plans, great institutions and big success. I am for those tiny, invisible loving human forces that work from individual to individual….

I’m no longer defined by any institution or any lofty goal or achievement I’ve set my eye upon.  Instead, this “magic time” surrounding my birthday is a time when I am most likely my true self.

The luminosity of the “magic time” provides photographers and cinematographers the final few minutes for the best picture taking/making. For me at age 78, this is a time of great lighting. I am able to see myself – and others around me – with clarity. For sure, I am a quite legitimate “old guy.” That descriptor feels good to me. I own that term proudly.

This is a springtime of knowing who I am and knowing who I am not.  It’s a time of better understanding those enduring qualities that make up who I am.  In this time of my birthday, my sight is clear; my knowing feels keen and sure.