It’s my Birthday!

Today is my birthday! It’s hard to believe that I’m celebrating 61 trips around the sun, but here I am! I’m looking forward to the future while cherishing the memories and lessons of the past.

Here I Am!

Birthdays have a way of inviting us to pause and take inventory, not simply of accomplishments or milestones, but of the people, experiences, joys, sorrows, and unexpected turns that have shaped us. We have all loved and lost. Each of us have hoped, only to have had our dreams, and our hearts, broken. At 61, I find myself less interested in arriving somewhere and more interested in paying attention to the journey itself.

A friend recently shared with me his assessment of myself. He texted, “You are too old of a dog to think too much about what other folks think.”

True.

I’ve learned that life rarely unfolds according to our plans, yet God remains faithful in every season. Some lessons have come through celebration; others have come through hardship. Both have been valuable teachers.

As I begin a new year, I am grateful for my wife, Terri, and for family, friends, readers, fellow travelers, as well as all those who have encouraged me along the way. I am grateful for another day to create, to learn, to love, to serve, and to bear witness to God’s goodness in the ordinary moments of life.

I don’t know exactly what the coming year will bring. There are still stories to write, pictures to paint, conversations to speak, and adventures yet to unfold. There are still opportunities to grow in wisdom, kindness, patience, and faith. For that, I am deeply thankful.

So today, I celebrate because I recognize life is a gift. None of us are promised tomorrow. Every sunrise is an invitation. Every breath is grace. Every year is another chapter in a story that God is still writing.

Here’s to 61.