Thursday, August 15, 2019

Another Birthday



I celebrated another birthday this week. To celebrate, we headed to Charleston, where we spent a few days filled with good food and good times. Since my stroke in November 2016, every birthday has become especially meaningful. In fact, I celebrate every day as a precious gift! These months since the stroke have given me a new appreciation for life. A new awareness that each day is a gift not to be taken for granted.

Birthdays bring inevitable thoughts about getting older. I can remember when, once upon a time, I thought anyone who had passed their 60th birthday was really old. As I enter my last decade in my 60s, I no longer think of 60 in quite the same way. Because the truth is, I really don't think of myself as old. I don't feel old. At least, not on most days!

Each birthday brings to mind Jonathan Edwards, that great American preacher of days gone by, who had seventy resolutions for his life, all of which he wrote while in his early twenties, and which he read every week for the rest of his life. His Resolution 52 is my favorite.

"I frequently hear persons in old age say how they would live, if they were to live their lives over again. Resolved, that I will live as I shall wish I had done, supposing I live to old age."

Having passed another birthday, Johnathan Edwards' resolution continues to be my resolution, for the coming year and for however many years lie ahead:  to live as I shall wish I had done.

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