But why does this one birthday matter so much. It's not like a really care for the process or all the "to-do" that normally surrounds the birthday festivities.
In truth this birthday has been one of my best but it was not just because of the age I am, but the news I recently got from my doctors.
As anyone who has read this blog should know I was diagnosed with Autoimmune Liver Disease a couple of years ago. However earlier in the month of July, about a week before my birthday, my recent blood work has shown that my liver numbers are almost normal.
This means that after two years of medications my liver is back on the path to recovery. While I fully expect to have to maintain medications for the rest of my life, I have managed to avoid any further damage to my liver.
There will still be a lengthy time period for the liver to fully repair itself, but it is a really resilient organ and can repair itself quite well given the right time and the right conditions.
In my case that condition means that my body is no longer actively attacking the liver.
So this year I took some much needed personal time over the last two weeks. While I still didn't go on a drinking binge (respect the liver), I did manage to just relax and enjoy some down time.
As our daughter has a few weeks left before the start of the new school year as well it was a nice chance to get out to our local lake and enjoy some father-daughter bonding time.
The summer has been quite busy over the last several weeks, with the wife having issues with her job, our daughter having a ton of summer activities to go back and forth, and let's not forget about dealing with the crazy heat this year.
It becomes important to realize just how worn down people can become when things seem like they are all piling on.
Work stress, home stress, heat, family, friends, finances, and just about any other stress you can think of can become a serious condition to the average person.
A quick run down of a host of medical problems become quickly worsened for those people who do not manage their stress levels adequately.
Heart disease, diabetes, stroke and dozens of other illnesses are bad enough by themselves, and tossing in unrelieved stressing to the mix becomes a recipe for disaster.
Stress is actually a leading cause of death among women, what does that say about your stress levels ladies? I am sure men are the cause of all that stress too, right? ;)
All joking aside. More people should take a look at their lives, the way they live, the things that they do and the crap they let bother them.
As a society we have become way to uptight, way to litigious, (sue-crazy), and way, way, way, toooooooooooooo serious about political crap.
At the rate our society is going I think entire political parties could have serious brain hemorrhaging issues.
Regardless of what you do with your life having some down time to "unwind the rubber band before it snaps" would do a wonderful job to make living together as a society a wonderful thing.
A large number of societal problems I think occur simply because people have been dealing with way too much stress in their lives.
Sure some stress is needed, like having the stress of no food to get you to go buy groceries.
Now not everyone is going to take up yoga, although it is a healthy routine, or take up meditation, which is also quite wonderful, but there are tons of other things we can do to "relax".
Take up a hobby.
And I don't mean one of those hobbies that gets you madder. Don't take up gold if you are going to get mad at your swing or the ball. That's counter productive.
Don't take up knitting of you can't sit still for hours one end.
But there are a crap ton of stuff to consider for occupying your time and energy with. Make it relaxing for you. It doesn't matter if other people find it relaxing or not.
For some people sewing is the key. For others it might be shooting s gun. Some find release in video games, others just want to soak up the sun laying on the pool float.
As the saying goes, "to each their own".
Then once you have learned to deal with the stress of your day in a healthy manner, attempt to prevent from adding more stress to others. +
This is the one part of society that I think many people have forgotten about and that is:
"Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you".
Many people over the years have asked my why I do not stress over those same things that they do. Normally I simply shrug my shoulders and laugh.
The truth is that I just do not want to stress over mostly inconsequential issues.
I have little care about which political party is in place, as eventually it all changes again and again anyways. I don't really care one way or another which buildings get build in a city. I do not really care who is dating whom and what she said or he said on a daily basis.
Unless something has a direct impact upon my life I most likely do not retain the information anyways.
This is one of the ways in which I eliminate a ton of my stress.
Just as misery loves company, I think people feel that just because something bothers them it should bother you. This couldn't be father from the truth.
There are things I stress over. Sometimes even a few things I might stress too much on, but those to me are the important things in life. Such as my daughter learning to read, or which boys she might like as she gets older.
Choosing what to stress over and learning which ones to simply avoid can make a difference to your life. Imaging what might happen if as a society we all learned to avoid stress in our lives, and in the event it was unavoidable we did not push it onto others but instead learned to cope with it in constructive, relaxing manners.
Imagine the possibilities.
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