Why is This Birthday Unlike Any Other Birthday?

In truth, this is a question that should be asked of anyone turning another page in his or her life. Let me provide my personal answers to that question and see if anything resonates with you in your own aging experience. I would love to hear from you if it does.

#1. I am 84 (Fill in your own age) years old and glad to be here at that — or any — age to celebrate it with my friends and loved ones.

#2. I am not finished. Providence willing, everything of importance on my plate I will complete to the benefit of myself and others. In my case, it was/is the charity I helped co-found (www.RIPMedicalDebt.org) and most recently the Impact Engine (www.LetsRethinkThis.com) I have just begun to apply the experience I gathered at RIP to help others shift their thinking to focus on tools and ways in which to create positive social and financial benefit for others.

#3. I look forward with nostalgia. However satisfying (or in some cases not) my life has been to this point — it is now only history. Its value lies in the hard-earned tools and experiences it provided me with which I can create a future to remember.

#4. Gratitude is the way I walk in happiness. For every lesson. For everything.

#5. Use me, til you use me up. Great song lyrics which I have purposed for my life. To which I might add a quote some unknown but obviously wise person, “I would rather wear out than rust out.”

In retrospect, the thing that makes this birthday unlike any other birthday is it finds me more aware. More aware of the good. More aware of the bad. More aware of the clock. More aware of my responsibility to use this time to wring as much good as I can out of the bad.

And that’s good enough for me.