Birthday chronicles/12th of Mercedonius
There are many things I enjoy about my birthday. For someone just a bit fixated on serendipity and metaphor—someone who is always looking for signs—the whats of my birthday are significant.
Even the whens mean something.
I was born at 12:43am on May 26—just after midnight. The whole day is mine. My son was born at 5pm—he has to wait until the end of the day until he really gets to celebrate being born (but I got to be in pain all day).
I am a third-generation May Gemini. My mother’s birthday is May 30 and her mother’s is May 25. As you might have guessed, my mother wanted my birthday to be the same as her mother’s (pretty sure she even tried to talk the doctor into it), but I dug in for an extra 43 minutes to make sure I could own my own day. Sorry, Mom.
In the States, the last Monday is May is Memorial Day. While it is a day to recognize those fallen in war, it is also the traditional summer kick-off. Yes, it’s a holiday of strange mixed messages, but it is Gemini season, you know! And my birthday always falls in that holiday week.
A late May birthday means I get to celebrate all month.
A mid-year birthday gives me the perfect moment to reflect on my year so far and realign where I am going with where I have been (or not been).
BONUS: In late spring/early summer, it is warm enough to gather outside, enjoy a pool party, and still look forward to warmer weather, but it is not so hot (like the Hell’s Front Porch of August) that you dread any space without refrigeration-level AC).
This year, my teaching semester ended on May 12, but my kids’ semester isn’t over until June 14. I am luxuriating in a child-free month exactly when I need a break to enjoy the sun and look around at all the people, places, penchants, and peccadilloes that help me be me.
Jealous yet?
Don’t be (well, maybe just a little). But chances are your birthday has many of the same happy boundaries, fortuitous timings, and curious landings as mine, they are just in your timing.
As your birthday approaches, look around—what do you “see”?
What do you like about your birthday season? Are you a winter baby who loves to cocoon? Or a summer baby who just can’t get enough outside? Or perhaps you buck cliche and celebrate a winter birth with a polar plunge in a local lake!
Where do you find focus during your birthday season? What places and spaces make you feel comfortable?
How do you parcel out your time? During the days or weeks around your birthday, what feels important and what does not?
It’s not in the stars; it’s right in front of you—the mundane is not as mundane as you think. Capture it.
