I turned 28 years old yesterday. 28. That sound so weird to someone who’s never felt her age. The number seems arbitrary, meaningless. And, then to have this day devoted to celebrating myself… even weirder.

Yesterday, I had to keep reminding myself that it was my birthday. It felt like any other day. I had to go to work, I went to a yoga class, washed the dishes.

I kept having thoughts like, “Oh! It’s my birthday. I should treat myself.”

“Today’s my birthday, I can eat whatever I want and not feel guilty!”

“I should buy myself something nice!”

And, then I felt strange, and – I admit – maybe a little guilty, for playing into this idea that we’re taught from our first birthday, that I’m somehow special and deserve to be celebrated. As if I did something in being born! As if I do anything worth celebrating!

So, all day I had this little dialogue in my head. Not feeling special… feeling like I should feel special… feeling a little special…

Then, I realized that birthdays are a day to celebrate LIFE! I love LIFE!

And, birthdays are one day when any of us get to be celebrated for merely existing! No qualifications, no measurements of success determining the worth of our being. That’s amazing! That’s how it should be! We should all get to feel love without any sort of judgements limiting that love. And, this shouldn’t be one day a year – it should be everyday!

Could you imagine if we all treated others like this everyday as opposed to just one day a year?