Happy Birthday to MWAH!! by Diane Ogden

As we get older birthdays should be celebrated with "Huge-er" parties verses lessor.  Huge-er because we are still upright and not ashes or six foot under.  Thus the older the bigger. Parties that is.  But that is not the way it goes is it?   We tend to try to forget we are getting older and brush the day aside.  Not me....I am so darn thankful to be here in this mess of a world at present.  Messes are made to clean up and it will clean up again.  You see, nearly every day I pass the Regent Street Cemetery and the Cress Funeral Home where two are being buried and one is being dug for!   Sure makes me thankful no matter what.  Once I'm on the other side (you know dead) I cant eat watermelon or cake anymore.  And I bet I will still want to.  I will look at God with that bit of a "stink eye" and he will look back at me with a bit of a forgiving "stink eye," and say:
You had your chance!  And behind his words I would spiritually read his mind....it would be telling me I had had my chance at many a thing and I blew some of them.  Sooo.....  I have decided not to do that anymore.
Go for the gusto.  No not beer......the gusto of life.  Laugh.  Live.  Love.  But don't charge too much on your credit card to get those things done.

Most of my family, the ones I like anyway, have moved far away.  They left me the leftovers no one wants to deal with!  But again, I am upright and thankful. As well as I steer clear of the "leftover" relatives.

What's my point?  I'll tell you what it is.  It is opening an envelope today at one of my long time clients homes and finding a little card all sealed up tight with my name on the front.  Sometimes that is awkward for me as I am usually the giver and have had to learn in life to receive better.  This was one of those times I felt like I was in a classroom life session.  I wanted to tuck it away and open it later but I knew I shouldn't do that.  So I didn't.  I opened it with a vengeance....like a child on Christmas morning.  A present!  For me!  All I usually get are four or five phone calls from afar saying Happy Birthday Mom. (Don't misunderstand me, I love those calls!)  But this was a real tangible happening right in front of my face.  Isn't this the sweetest ever surprise.  It touched my heart in a way sometimes earthly words aren't enough.  And I wanted to share......

  Diane Jungbluth- Ogden  born 11-22-47  and still thankful for everyday I am given....Its a GIFT!
              Present day is a Present.  I am blessed and so are you if you are reading this!!!