Leap Year: Another year older; another year wiser

I love birthdays. I think I owe that all to my parents. Not the fact that I actually HAVE a birthday, that goes without saying. I owe them for making my birthdays something to look forward to. For them it has always been a celebration. It is never just another day in your life. Even now that I am married, my children are grown and I no longer am a child my mom makes me feel like a princess on my birthday. I don't know if they will ever understand how much I appreciate that they have done that for me.

It's a great feeling but it also reminds me that we ALL need to take time in our lives to have our special day. We need to take an entire day once in a while and fill every minute with things that we enjoy doing or be with those people that we enjoy being around. It's just good for the soul I suppose but it also helps me to keep things in perspective. If making my day so special makes me feel so wonderful then I need to take the time throughout my year to make somebody elses day special as well. It's not the big things, it's the funny note you can leave written in the snow on their car window, it's starting the neighbors car for them in the morning to let it warm up before they leave for work, it's telling a friend how nice they look in their jeans since they lost a few pounds, it's hugging your husband when he ruins the birthday cake frosting because he grabbed the powdered sugar container rather than the flour...it's as simple as warming somebody's heart.

I hope that I never have a birthday that I regret getting another year older. I understand that having a birthday every four years should ease that pain somewhat but I also want to be that person that greets every year with eager anticipation of what it will bring in my travels through life. I also hope that I have a LOT more birthdays which include my parents singing happy birthday to me; making me birthday goodies and wanting to spend the day with me. I regret that I haven't made their birthdays as special. It has taken 46 years for me to really figure out how much it really means to me. Maybe I can spend the next 46 making birthdays more special for others.