MY 29TH BIRTHDAY

Yesterday was my 29th birthday. I was talking to my Mom about how much I have changed since I became a mother and for the better. So many things that were important to me now seem so trivial. I spent my 29th birthday at home with my toddlers. My day started cleaning up a rather nasty mess in the bathroom ( I won't share any details but let's just say it involved Davis and his urinal - yikes!!) The next part of my day involved playing outside with the inflatable pool with my friend & neighbor Charlene, her two children, and my best friend of over 9 years - Crystal. Charlene made lunch for all the kids and Crystal brought me a Starbucks and my favorite dessert. The day ended with us roasting marshmallows and hot dogs ( a new experience for my kids) a glass of wine and a shower with no one bothering me : -) That was such a great day to me and there were no elaborate gifts, no big surprise party, no trips, no need to dress up or put make up on - just a great birthday celebrated with people that I care about it. Often women gauge holidays and birthdays by the jewerly, clothing, or material things they are given. We've all worked with people or know people that will ask "what did you get for your birthday" versus "did you enjoy your day?". Here's to a birthday where I received  things money cannot buy - a great husband, wonderful kids, kind friends who make kind gestures, and being comfortable with myself just the way I am. It's a great feeling!!

Anyhow, Eunice Kennedy Shriver was buried yesterday and my Mom e-mailed me the eulogy given at her funeral by her daughter Maria Shriver. She thought I would enjoy it. This is the part I really liked:

"....I'm especially glad that young women are hearing about her, because she was a woman who didn't choose, and women are often told you have to choose to be this, or that, this kind of woman, you have to dress this way, talk this way, you have to have one opinion. Well Mummy wasn't like that, she didn’t choose.

She let all the different parts of her go out, and that's what made her unique. She didn't allow herself to be tamed, or contained. She achieved herself, her true authentic self. The very same woman who made grown men quake in their boots when she stepped foot on Capitol Hill was the very same woman who spent quality time with each and every one of us, making us feel loved, making us believe in our self. She spent quality time with each of those grandchildren you saw here on this altar, building sandcastles, looking for leprechauns, looking for mermaids. She didn't choose between being strong and soft, complex or simple.

As her story goes out this week, I believe that she will become a new torchbearer for women of our time, sending a new message. That you don't have to be a certain way, you don't have to fit a stereotype, that over your life you can have a full, complete, spiritual life -- a life that is about others and a life that is about family. Her story, I believe, teaches that women are complex and they can live out every simple, single aspect of that complexity...."

Here's to the last year in my twenties being about people and not things. Family and not individual. I can only hope someday my children will say these great things about me!