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This photo was taken by our daughter, Sarah Timmons, or my wife, depending on who you ask. We were in Rehoboth Beach, DE on Easter Sunday, 2011.


Several years ago, on the way home from a family vacation, I picked up a notebook and quickly recorded an incident that had occurred involving our son. Eventually, I used that story to illustrate something about my spiritual walk as a believer in Christ. Thus began a deliberate attempt to document the significance of everyday events. Almost any ordinary circumstance in daily life can become fodder for another story. This, almost by definition, lends itself to a blog.

Of course, many of the entries here are just ordinary diary style stuff... the stuff of ordinary blogs. Good grief, I don't want to be ordinary.


Saturday, January 3, 2015

Scientific Analysis of Birthdays

If you took a poll, and charted "Enjoyment of One's Birthday" on a graph, I suspect that for many it would look something like this - quickly rising in youth, but then at some age, perhaps around 30, it would start to descend.  Evenually, it would reach a low point, and then in the latter years of one's life, when you are just happy to be around, the Enjoyment factor would rise again.






 I'm in that low point between the two peaks in the graph.

I can accept the aging of this body, as annoying as that can be.  But birthday ALWAYS prompt a reflecting on the past.  And given my temperament, that isn't necessarily a good thing.

Some of us are cursed with self-analysis.  It often hits in one's youth, around the age of 11.  By the age of 54, it's fully developed and can be set off by the typical triggers, such as birthdays, or funerals.  But it can also rear its head with such prompts as dreary weather on a Monday morning, or an aching shoulder.

The particulars of the self-analysis may differ, but the root question at this age is basically the same - "What have I done with my life up until this moment, and what will I do with it in the future?" 

The Encouragers will be quick to point out the positives.  Yes, I have a wonderful family, the best in fact.  Yes, I have great friends.  Yes, I have many to love and many who love me.  Yes, my family lacks nothing. Yes, I have MUCH to be thankful for, and nothing to gripe about.  You don't have to remind me of how blessed I am.

The issue has more to do with what we have been given.  I'm of the opinion we are all entrusted with things to be shared for the good of those around us.  It may be talents, attitudes, gifts, abilities... call it whatever you want.  These things are not for us, they are for those around us.  Who knows how this idea got so engrained in my psyche.  Maybe it was from watching SpiderMan movies.

The fact is, it's there now, and I can't shake it.  And the older I get, the more I realize I have one less year to act upon what I've been given.  Choices of the past may have limited where I can go in the future with this... not much I can do about that.  The beauty is, there's always some path from this particular point.

It's THAT path I'm interested in.  If I must be cursed with self-analysis, then I will apply it to modifying the future path. 

Perhaps birthdays aren't so bad after all.

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