Birthday Post!

What a week! Nothing like another birthday...

Now that I have two birthdays I feel like I am getting older faster, and I have to say that getting older never felt so good. Feeling like every day counts gave me a renewed sense of life and in a way I feel so much better today than I was before. Facing death in a way enabled me to really live and enjoy every second, I have to admit that in a strange way my brain tumor enabled me to really find a renewed sense of purpose and really focus on doing things that I really enjoy. Everything else gets brushed to the side, why would I ever do anything with my life that I don’t enjoy? Shouldn’t we all live like this? I have to say that I did already live like this, but now I believe even more strongly that people should not waste time with things they are not passionate about. Whether work, friends, family, I’ve always tried to do the things I enjoyed and surround myself with people I liked, and it shouldn’t come as a surprise that I live a very happy life, regardless of any condition.

My mother-in-law’s father had a really funny saying that I have to share: “no one wants to get old, but even less die young!” What a great way to capture how I felt. Today getting old doesn’t feel that bad. Livia would always ask him why he wouldn’t go out with his friends and he would always reply “the sons of ** all died”. In a weird way I always felt really connected to him, we had a really similar sense of humor, we shared a taste for wine, we were tall, and as crazy as it sounds he developed a brain tumor. Unfortunately he was diagnosed late, his tumor was a glioblastoma and was well larger than mine. But he lived a long and fulfilling life and I live with his legacy until today.

My birthday was really special. I woke up with my little daughter singing happy birthday while I was still in bed. She is usually the last one to get up and I am the first one. She was so proud to be the first one in the house to get up and knowing that my birthday was the first thing she remembered that day made me feel really special and lucky. I was also blessed with lots of Happy Birthday wishes, most wishing me also lots of health. I had an MRI on Sunday and for whatever reason I felt cured, we’ll see what the results say. For that reason I got up, biked for 20 minutes and went for a 10 minute run, which I did at my old running pace. Running never felt so good, I hadn’t run for a long time and it made me feel great. To add to the feeling, I ran into a girl at the gym that did 2 Ironmans. Is this a coincidence? What a motivation, everything pointing in the right direction, she shared that there are triathlon teams, cycling clubs, all within walking/running/biking distance from where I live. My life has such a strong gravity towards the things I wish, makes me feel like someone is really watching over me. As someone born on Easter from a mom born on Christmas I am starting to suspect who He is. Regardless of religion I have found that Faith is such a motivation in life.

This is it for today, I hope to have more great news on my next post, at the very least I will have a lot of fun, in 5 days we are having a high-school reunion and I hope to meet a lot of old friends that I haven't seen in several years. Let the celebration schedule begin!