What Do You Think About, on Your Birthday?

I have a birthday coming up in a few days. It's not one of those milestone birthdays. I had the big Five-O, last year, so this is just another passing year. No fanfare, black candles on the cake, tombstone yard signs, or biting humorous cards...well, my sister-in-law will probably still send one of those, since I am the oldest of this current generation of my family, in-laws included. I am forging ahead, where no man (or woman) has gone before, at least in terms of days on the planet. And she loves to remind me of this.

As this date gets closer, my attention has been focused on the life questions. I was wondering, why do I annually focus on the life questions, at this point in my life: at birthdays?

I attended a luncheon seminar on Tuesday of this week; Chris Crouch, president of DME Training and Consulting told about a famous executive, who had attained tremendous success as defined by our culture, who went to the Dr. to see about what seemed like a minor issue. Over the course of a few days...I'm sure you are ahead of me on this story...it was discovered that he had 3 inoperable brain tumors; the prognosis for this type of condition was not good. It was actually, the worst case scenario: 3 to 6 months to live. In fact he did pass away within that time period. But during his remaining time, he altered his life dramatically, and thus died a peaceful and satisfying death. It was such at least in terms of what he had left to work with, the 4 months; and apparently much more so, than if his life had been taken quickly by an accident or massive stroke or heart attack.

Later that same evening of the lunch, I was discussing with a friend of mine who had been at the lunch as well, how we viewed this story. He told me he had a few regrets over the past years, some things he would have done differently. I agreed with him. There were certainly some things we both would have liked to have done differently over the course of our lives. But then I asked about the now What would we do differently about the now; and the going on from here part. We both thought about it, discussed it and I think we came to the same conclusion: not much, not much differently. Of course an unexpected financial windfall would alter the plans to some effect. We agreed we would like to travel with loved ones to see places we wanted to visit; a veritable "Bucket List" of things if you will. And we agreed it would be nice to be able to be financially generous, again with our loved ones to provide for them beyond our current means, now and after we are gone, in excess of the life insurances, investments, etc. already in place. But the likelihood of the wealth thing does not seem to be on the immediate horizon, so we went back to the more realistic: going on from here thought.

I would like to think, that if given the news that I had but a short time left on this earth, I would pray more, love more, give more. But, I would not have to reinvent myself to do these things. They are already part of the fabric of my daily life. I might want to ramp it up a bit, just to let those in my life know how much I truly care for them; but it would not be the complete turning my life around kind of experience that many people may contend with when faced with their imminent demise.

And so, as I head into the second 1/2 century of my life, and I ponder my own perennial big question, this time reminds to do the important things, more deeply and more often. I am so grateful to my parents, my wife and family, good friends, and my God, for the gift of showing me a path to walk along; a path that gives me a life of peace and joy. As I think back to, "Why do I consider these things as my birthday approaches," I believe this time to pause and reflect, is actually a gift from God. In this gift,is a reminder, of the good things in my life. With this gift, how could I ask for any better birthday present than that?