“Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.” ~ John Lennon

I never thought of 37 being one of THE birthdays.  We assign such meaning to certain birthdays in American culture.  There’s the 1st birthday when parents go all out to celebrate baby.  There’s the 5th birthday that signifies the beginning of school.  Then we skip to 13, the start of adolescence.  For some of my friends the quinceñera marks the transition from childhood into womanhood.  For me that was signified by my 18th birthday.

Fast forward to the college years and the celebration of full citizenship status as a voting adult at 19 years old.  Next up 21 for the legal drinking age, 25 for the quarter life crisis (and boy did I have a doozy).  Then we just start looking at the increments of 10.  My 30th birthday felt epic.  There was an inner shifting in how I viewed the world.  I became more concerned about focusing my efforts and how I spent my time.  I really didn’t expect to feel much of anything between 30 and the end of 39 until my 37th birthday was approaching and I took a step back.  I realized that I had not celebrated my birthday in a meaningful way in YEARS.

How had I allowed my birthday to become just another day?  The one day of each year when I should take time to truly reflect on where I’ve been and where I want to go.  The day that I should be open to receiving all the love of my beautiful network of family and friends.  It is frightening to me how easy it is to slip into the hum drum of following a life plan and letting life slide by me in the process of all that planning (or adulating as I sometimes think of it).  This year had to be different.  This year’s celebration of another successful rotation around the sun needed to be intentional.  So I decided to really go home and reconnect with myself in what I’m calling #ComeThru37.

Tune in tomorrow for Part 2…