Birthdays as Opportunities

On Monday, June 1st, I celebrated my 58th birthday. While not a major milestone birthday, it was a significant birthday for me because I celebrated it in the city in which I arrived in the world, New York City. I woke up in Rochester, NY and spent my birthday breakfast with my friend Jan who as I mentioned in a previous blog post is recovering from open heart surgery and who has been my friend for 40 years. When you get to be 58, it is possible to have friends for 40 years or even 50 plus years, if you are lucky. I’m blessed to have several friends whom I’ve known 40 years and longer, and they all have been very good friends to me over the years.

As one of her birthday gifts to me, Jan asked me to pick a Rune card for myself from her deck of cards. In my typical punning way, I heard Rune as “Ruin” and wondered what would be my ruin in this my 58th year. For someone who is in many ways as optimistic as I am, I still confess to having deep roots in the world of pessimism. When I am caught in either optimism or pessimism and can’t see the other side, I don’t think that either one is completely helpful to me. However, when I am able to hold both perspectives as powerful possibilities at the same time, there is a knowing that serves me. Since I have often dubbed myself, “The Queen of Paradox, Or Not…”, it does seem fitting that I would incorrectly associate ruin with rune.

What might be the opportunity of making this pun? It is good to see in advance where we might lead ourselves into ruin. I always think that it’s better to know beforehand so that I can take precautionary measures. In this case, I didn’t have a specific picture but it is something that I will meditate on so that I can take steps that will lead to my success rather than my ruin.

My associations to ruin are also death and rebirth. Ruin reminds me to not be so attached to my ego and personality. Ego and personality die little deaths every day. They arise again in slightly different form almost immediately after they die. I have no need to worry about my ego deserting me. We are joined for life and possibly even death if I understand some Buddhist teachings correctly. It is important for me to remember that my ego’s or personality’s ruin is not MY ruin. At my core, I am emptiness and infinite possibility unattached to either ego or personality.

The rune card that I chose was a perfect teaching for my birthday and for this coming year. It pointed me toward a path that feels right for this period of my life and for my personal growth. Practicing the wisdom of this card will serve me and the people with whom I interact well.

Jan’s partner, Stuart took me to the airport and we continued our ongoing conversation of getting to know one another better. Stuart is a relatively new arrival in Jan’s life and he is the perfect partner for her. Because we live on opposite sides of the country, Stuart and I haven’t spent all that much time visiting together. And yet, each time we do see one another, our conversations are powerful and enhancing. I am thrilled that they found one another. The birthday opportunity from Stuart was to let myself be further known by yet another loving and powerful being.

Spending my birthday with my family always provokes reflection and gratitude. I am grateful to be so well loved by my family. This is particularly evident in the way that my sister and her family celebrate me on my birthday. Ironically, my sister’s birthday is the day after mine. I was born three years and one day earlier than she was. Initially, her arrival irked me as I had to share my birthdays with her. In adulthood, I feel wonderfully blessed to share our days together. It makes my birthday much richer for me and hopefully richer for her as well.

For me, the biggest opportunity of having a birthday is to renew my ongoing practice to open my heart toward myself and others. It seems like this is the most important work of all of humanity. My individual heart started beating 58 years ago on Friday, June 1st, 1951 in New York City. However, it is merely an echo of all of the other hearts beating before me, beside me and in front me. May all hearts be blessed with the opportunity to open and love all other living beings and things on the planet.

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This entry was written by Judith Cohen, MCC, CPCC and posted on June 3, 2009 at 10:29 am and filed under History, Psychology. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.

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