A Birthday as a Kind Rebirth
Well, folks, today is my birthday (January 31st). Go ahead and wish me well – no gifts necessary (smile). No, if you all would continue to read my content and continue to show support, that’s all I can ask for. That said, I appreciate all the Kind words and the birthday shout-outs. Thank you, sincerely.
Now, on to the concept of birthdays in the world of Kind Rebirths. Birthdays are strange moments. When you’re young, they take forever to come around. When you start to gain a little more age they begin to sneak up on you quietly. Some ages feel different, more meaningful. We probably consider those like milestones, 16, 18, 21, 30, 40, 50….so forth and so on. We feel that they represent celebration or achievement or progress, like another year has been completed. We have taken another step forward. Sometimes for me, however, birthdays feel like a pause. It’s one of the few days when time becomes visible.
Every year I gain, I feel like something has passed. Not in the sense of loss, but I feel the recognition of life and its unfolding. Time is moving quickly around us and for some reason it takes a significant event, like a birthday, to slow down and reflect. As I grow older and more aware, I’ve come to realize that birthdays don’t have to be a transformative event. Sometimes life brings us opportunities to simply stop and notice. As such, in the Kind Rebirths space, the act of noticing matters more than the number itself.
My day today was not spent thinking and planning on how to become someone new. I didn’t spend time thinking of what missteps I’ve taken over the past year and how I wanted to correct them for the upcoming year, no. I wanted to stand inside my life, the one I am living in this moment. I wanted to appreciate where I am and what I have been fortunate to have. This time I didn’t take the path of reminiscing and remembering what I’ve learned with the intent of turning it into a measure of growth. This birthday came as a reflection without any instruction. I just wanted to sit and look at where I am.
There is something deeply grounding about using the birthday as a checkpoint. Most days we move without making a mark. We wake up, deal with what’s in front of us, and then we keep going. Today, I took this birthday as a moment to interrupt that. I didn’t want to focus too heavily on where I’d rather be, where I thought I should be, or where I would want to be next year.
In a Kind Rebirth birthday, we don’t necessarily need reinvention here. For me, it has become an opportunity to witness. Specifically, I wanted to use this time to focus on the fact that change is already happening. It is already integrating. It is already becoming. It doesn’t matter if I label it or try to define it as something. Sometimes growth just needs to be noticed.
Moving forward, I want to treat birthdays as a form of noticing rather than an act of remembering. It’s a subtle difference but one worth mentioning. I would rather spend this time noticing what has happened. Remembering becomes more of a lamentation whereas noticing is more self-reflecting.
This birthday felt different, indeed. It’s less dramatic but still meaningful. My meaning is derived from the simple fact that we are still here, paying attention and noticing, while willing to stand on our own experiences without having to rush past it.
My day was not a reset and not a resolution. My Kind Rebirth and Birthday today is a return to who I am with more awareness than I’ve ever had before. I think that’s a pretty decent way to honor it.
Stay mindful.
Rebirth
