Living your best life and all that

It just so happens that I was born on the 22nd of May a mere 34 years ago. This isn't all that monumental. I mean, everyone has birthdays, and it's not like it's my 40th or something. But of course, it gets me thinking about my life...

If I were "living my best life," as Opie (that's short for Oprah, only Gail and I get to call her that) likes to say, I think I'd be a vegetarian and a long-distance runner. I can feel both those things buried in me somewhere, but I like to ignore them while I eat steak and sit around.

It's not that refraining from meat and strapping on the cross-trainers are things that define the well-lived life for everyone, I'm just talking about me here. Because it's my best life we're talking about, and I can make up whatever I want because I've been around for 34 years.

In my best (imaginary) life, I'm also a nurse. (In my current life, I haven't gone to school to be a nurse, I just think she's buried in there somewhere with the vegetarian runner.) I'm working hard at the hospital, and then taking part in some kind of community theater on the weekends. Because yes, you guessed it, in my best life I can totally act. (And I'm also a published author, just so you know.)

(While we're at this, you should probably know that I'm completely emotionally, mentally, and spiritually healthy. This is my BEST life, so I have no issues. And that, my friends, is reeeaaal nice.)

Sidenotes: If I were a nurse (who goes running daily and refrains from steak eating while rushing off to the stage to be the star of the latest live theater hit), I would also line-dry my clothing as much as possible. There's just something about that crisp feeling with that fresh air scent. It's like the starchy envelope wrapped around my best life.

And : Of course I'd be doing more gardening, my whole yard a feast of sorts, if I were living my best life.

Yeah, so there it is. At 34, I figure I could be doing more to "live my best life." And maybe, just maybe, I'll add some of those things to my life at some point, they really do appeal to me after all.

But is this what birthdays are for? A day to remember that you were born and then fuss over all the things you could have done or should be doing?

I think not.

Birthdays are a chance to look around, see all that is good, and then really see it! Your best life! Happening right then. Your very own big and best life cake. So I'm going to have mine, and I'll eat it too, scooping up the ice cream and the words, "Ryan, Miles, and Asher." Because of course, they are the icing on the cake.

Happy Birthday to me.

Miles - 2005

Asher- 2007