Saturday, December 13, 2008

Shameless Self-Promotion

Tomorrow is my birthday, my 43rd birthday!
Yup, I have survived 43 years on this wildly spinning, tilted planet.
I have spent a lot of time this week thinking back on the life I have lived.
I have lived well. I have loved deeply.
I have read and written and dreamed a lot.

I continue to hope and pray that the best years of my life,
that the most passionate love of my life,
that the deepest friendships of my life,
that the most soul-jarring travels of my life
are yet to come.




This much I know for sure -

I have ventured out and I have stayed put.
I have learned and I have taught.
I have laughed and I have cried.
I have loved and I have loathed.

I have grown and then regressed.
I have feasted and then fasted.
I have prayed and then cursed.

I have longed for love and then rejected it.
I have asked for forgiveness and then denied it to others.
I have spoken truth and then lied unrepentantly.

I spend too much time staring at the full moon.
I spend too much money on stickers, pens, and beads.
I spend too much energy on disappointment and disdain.

I eat organic baby green salad from Earth Fare and bacon cheese burgers from Sonic.
I drink filtered water and lemon drop martinis.
I awake in the morning and enter into a time of prayerful meditation
and go to sleep with unashamedly lustful thoughts in my mind.


I want all that the world has to offer but insist that I could turn it all down if necessary.
I yearn for that which I cannot have but long to abandon that which I ought to embrace.

I am human, through and through.



And tomorrow, I will celebrate all of my contradictions and hypocrisies,
all my joys and sorrows,
all that has come my way already and all that is yet to be.


Tomorrow is my birthday.
And I plan to celebrate me!!!

6 comments:

jmgb said...

all of which is why i ADORE you!
thank you gail...for haring struggle and fight and ease and beauty and even the ugly that sometimes is initially born out of pain before it's transformed into redemption...
all of it.
all of you.

i give gratitude on this day, for this year, for *your* lifetime...
i celebrate indeed!

Anonymous said...

Hooray!

We're celebrating right along with you!

LOTS OF LOVE TO YOU, DEAR GAIL :-)

Shelby said...

Happy BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am one year older than you :)

Amy said...

Happy Birthday, Gail! I will be celebrating in spirit with you.

How love how diverse you are: Organic green salad and a Sonic bacon cheeseburger. filtered water and lemon drop martinis! Love it!

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday Gail,

I wish you blessings and for telling it like it is. I just wrote a post about that today for later.

Whose are the friends who will tell you like it is.

We are all human, but I believe that why Jesus inner circle all had flawed people in it to show us that.
I think your normal indeed, with a beautiful heart.

Beautiful post.

Love, Ella

Melanie said...

Happiest of happy birthdays to you Gail! I pray that you had a delightful & blessed day!
Joy to you~
Melanie