As I sit here, I can’t help but feel grateful. Today I got to spend someone’s birthday with them — just us.
If we’re lucky we get roughly 85 birthdays in a lifetime. Spending one with someone is more than 1% of their total. That’s real currency. Time. Life.
Naturally, as a deep thinker, I detach from the moment even when I appear present. Today was no different at first. But the hardest part is choosing where to place your attention when it actually matters. You can only be in one place at one time.
An annual celebration of someone’s life is a social construct, but it’s still special. It’s a personalized mark in time — a quiet shout against the grain, another year of survival. Someone chose to spend their finite ~1% with me on a day that signals their life. That choice carries weight.
In the middle of the moment, a bittersweet feeling tugs anyway. We don’t know what comes next in this battle. But you’ll always remember the birthday you spent with that person, and they’ll remember you. A personal mark in time that the universe can’t take or change.
Happy 29th birthday, you.