Happy Birthday to Me

It's my birthday! I'm 33. I have received e-mails and FB messages and snail mail and phone calls and drawings and plastic necklaces and a night out to remind me how very loved and blessed I am. I'm so very thankful for the special people in my life and for another year on this earth. I will admit that between my last birthday and this one I haven't always been the best me I can be. Sometimes I have been the worst one. I have experienced grief, anger, frustration, confusion, jealousy, stubbornness, and low self-esteem--and not always gracefully. But I have also cried tears of joy, laughed until my sides hurt, let go of hard feelings, loved and been loved in ways I didn't know were possible, tried new things, made new friends, and been proud of those I love and of myself. And I wouldn't trade a minute of it--good or bad--for each experience has been a shaping one. And I rather like what I'm turning into! 

Thanks, everyone, for all the birthday wishes! You have all made me feel super-special!