Birthday

I personally know people who probably stopped reading this blog right after they read the title of this positing. There are people who actually hate birthdays, but do they? Is it that they hate birthdays or just what they represent, and what they fear?

What is it that a birthday actually represents? A birthday represents a celebration of the anniversary of a miracle of somebody’s life. A continuation of this life.
Whether an easy year free of problems and pain, or one that was filled with trials and tribulations. The point is that it was a success, we are here to talk about it and we get a chance to keep going on.

I personally love birthdays and I hope that I and the people that I love have as many birthdays as possible.

Tomorrow (February 28th ) is a very special (Birthday) for me. In 1953 on this day, a star shined down from the heavens over a little town called Brooklyn, New York and born to a kind couple was this beautiful little girl. A little girl, one with the warmest and kindest heart in the world. A little girl who grew into a woman who knows how to love purely.

A lifetime friend, a partner and a wife, one who has been dedicated through the good and the rough times. One who defines the terms “in good times and in bad”.

Happy Birthday to my wife, Madelaine.

I dedicate this positing to my wife Madelaine on the anniversary of her birth. I would not be the man I am without her, my soul mate.

Madelaine is the salt to my pepper, the left to my right, the up to my down, the in to my out. She makes life so much enjoyable.

One of the things I love best about her is when I get annoyed at something she has done (believe me we know each other for over 43 years so we can annoy each other at times), I am ready to be angry with her. Then I hear her voice, she looks at me in a certain way and she melts me. I forget what I am angry about, she makes me laugh and then we go on.

Each night I go to bed thinking I could not possibly love this woman any more than I do this day and then I wake up the next morning and I love more than I loved her yesterday …. I look forward to tomorrow.

Madelaine has been by my side through my worse times but through all our years, we have had fun! Even through the darkest and heaviest (no pun) of times, we have tried to laugh as much as possible, find the humor in many situations and she has been a main force behind my strength.

She is also the greatest teacher I have had in my life. She is probably the smartest woman (person), I know. Her wisdom is superior. She has taught me to be who I am and not who I am not. She has taught me that she is not in this world to live up to my expectations, nor am I in this world to live up to hers, among many other great, wonderful and powerful things.

She has helped me to realize my relationship with God. She has taught me the true meaning of family. She teaches through example.

Madelaine is a giant among us and sets an example to me and many of us, on just how to live. If she has any weaknesses, it is not knowing how to say “NO”.

Not an evil bone in her body, no hardness in her heart but she would not want everyone to know that. So shhhh, do not tell anyone she is a softy.

I am the luckiest man to have lived and to have been matched with Madelaine.

Birthdays? I love birthdays, especially February 28th.

Happy Birthday my Boot, I love you privately, publicly, timelessly, now and forever.

Thank you my friends for allowing me to use this space to pay tribute to a very special soul.

We all need to appreciate life around us…
our loved ones, and our own.

Birthdays are not to be scared of but rather to be appreciating of…life itself!

Have a great day, have a great life!

Love
Mike

Love

Wars have been fought, people have died, all over this simple but complicated “four” letter word … LOVE! Throughout time, people have proclaimed their love for their gods, for God, for their countries, for their fellow man, for nature and for each other. Love has become a very deep involved word and often a misused one. Love is said to come on all levels and all forms. There is the love you have for a parent, which is not the same as the love you have for a spouse. Nor is the love of a spouse the same as a love for a child. Then we love our children differently than we love our grandchildren. We have love for our close friends, which is nothing like we have for our neighbor next door, and the love for our neighbor next door is not quite the same as the love we have for our neighbors across the ocean.

Why have we complicated such a simple beautiful thing, like love? Boy, as human beings we can certainly “take simple and make it complicated”.

Anyone have an animal or a newborn baby? Watch how innocent and pure their love is for you. I had a physical therapist once who use to say all the time “Love is Love”!

When you think of it, how true is that statement? Love is just that …love! If we kept it simple, pure and true then love at its simplest form would be the same all around. How we express our love, how we practice our love to our spouses, parents, children, friends, families and acquaintances is different and should be different …of course it is. Yet the foundation is the same. A bonding, a respect, closeness, a oneness a feeling that cannot really be put in to human terms because it is a feeling beyond full human comprehension.

If we think of love like an onion (nice analogy) and peel it away layer by layer in the center of our love for all things, for all people must be the simplest of all loves.

Yet on the other hand, it is the kind of love, which gives most the biggest problem of all. What is that you might ask?
That kind of love is “Self-Love”!

Self-Love is at the core of true love. How do we begin to love, if we cannot love ourselves? Oh, I can hear the roar out there and read the emails already …relax. I hear you and I have been where many of you think you are.

There was a time when I knew I loved my wife and adored my son but I would swear there was no self-love for me. I would have argued that I could love others without loving myself …but I was wrong!

I was wrong, not in the fact that I loved my wife and son of course I loved them, I was wrong in the fact of loving myself. I did love myself, I always loved myself and not in a narcissistic way but in way that love counts. The caring, the important way.

The problem was it was so long since I felt hope, so long since I really did anything good for myself, so long since I showed myself any love that I actually forgot that I did love myself.

The fact is we all love ourselves, we may forget that at times, sometimes for very long period. So long of periods that we think it is the truth …we do not love our selves but we do!

What one needs to do is something to spark that Self-Love. Something that really counts.

It is okay to love yourself; it is not selfish to have “Self-Love”. A little more “Self-Love” might help you to be happier, healthier and live better.

Allowing me to love me has been a positive thing. It has given me the strength to not give up, wanting to live, to want to be a part of the lives of those I love. Allowing me to love myself just intensifies and secures the love I have for all in my life.

“Love is Love” and let it begin with you.

Have a happy and loving day

Love
Mike