Thank you's

Thank you for my birthday.

Thank you, mom. Thank you, dad. Thank you for the gift of this life I am living.

Thank you for my birthday, husband.

Thank you for loving me and thank you for making this birthday filled with love, acceptance, trust and joy.

Thank you for my birthday my children.

Thank you for the love and respect you gave to me. Thank you for showing me the joys of motherhood that I still celebrate.

Thank you for my birthday my siblings.

Thank you for making my birthday one that I can look forward to, yet still look back on the memories that we shared together growing up and of birthdays past.

Thank you for my birthday, my friends.

Thank you for the wishes of a joyous day and for being a family that I chose.

Thank you for my birthday cancer.

Thank you for not taking my life.

Thank you for the wake-up call.

Thank you for showing me that we only have one life and only one chance to live it.

Birthdays are not the day that I sit around waiting to celebrate for myself. I don’t hide from them or run towards them. But they are a day to look at your life. To reflect. To see how your life has been since the last celebration of your birth.

They are a reminder of life.

Your life.

Your unique life.

This year with all the challenges, with all the people who have lost lives, with all the hurt, with the changes and with the fear. This year, I proudly celebrate my birthday and, in this celebration, I send joy, hope, prayers and I send you all love.