It's My Birthday, It's My Birthday!

WOW! I did it, I spent six cycles of seven years on the planet earth in this human form. This is an amazing accomplishment for someone who thought they would die before thirty or at least that's what the deacon said at the church when I was twelve. Okay, I know you're wondering what I'm talking about. What had happened was, I was totally mad at my mother and I kept running away from church, she'd bring me and I'd sneak out and start walking home. Now that I think about it, since I was walking home that wouldn't really constitute running away but at any rate, she'd come find me walking down Washtenaw because it was the only street from Ypsilanti that I was aware of that lead me back home. But I digress, I was sneaking out of the church again when one of the deacons's caught me. He grabbed my arm and he spun me around just as I was about to jump down the steps and land on the sidewalk toward freedom. I was scared out of my mind because for one I didn't think that anyone had seen me leaving and secondly this deacon was tall, the look on his face was mean looking and the grip he had on my arm hurt worst that any of Mama's whippings, so needless to say I was pretty frieghtened. He told me how important it was for children to obey their parents and he made sure to emphasize in summary something about a scripture that said that if I didn't obey my mother I would not live past the age of 27. Now, at the time, my young mind believed him and I lived my life until I was 27 believing this. I may have believed him but that didn't stop me from acting out, running away and I don't think I ever stopped giving my mother a hard. I decided that since I was going to die at 27, I might as well have as much fun as possible and I was a reckless tanzmanian mess.
The day I turned 27, I waited around to die but didn't, then I just thought that God was busy perhaps tied up with all the other people my age who were bad when they were kids and since my last name was Young, it was taking some time for do to get to me. Also, perhaps God was having mercy on my soul because by the time I was 27, I had three small children.
On my 35th birthday, I became frustrated with waiting for God and I looked the scripture up in the Bible and what I discovered was that there was no scripture about kids dying at 27, just something about days being numbered. Now at first I wanted to go kick the deacon in his you-know-what but I had seem him at the last church picnic and he had become old and frail plus I was living in California and didn't have the financial resources to simply fly to Michigan to kick somebody and then return home but I vowed to confront him about the scripture as soon as I had a chance. I never confronted him about the scripture because by the time I would see him again, I had learned too much about spirituality, luckily for him and learned that holding grudges and being mean weren't good for the soul, mine or his.
I'm now 42, it's funny that I think about that story, I think about that deacon and it's interesting reflecting back on my life. I never dreamed that I would be 42 but here I am. I had no preconceived notions of what it would be like, so I'm neither disappointed or elated about what life is like for me at 42. I just know that it is an even number, the brink of another 7-year cycle and I look good, I feel good and I am good. I'm excited about the next 42 years unless there is a scripture that someone needs to tell me about, I've decided to embrace another 42 years.
I'm proud of the person I am today something I couldn't have imagined either. I enjoy my life, I love my kids and I get the feeling that today is just the beginning of some mind blowing living. And hopefully some really, really, did I say really good SEX! I know that this might seem like a departure from being spiritual but as Miss Shug said in the Color Purple "God loves all them feelings. I think it makes God mad when you walk by the color purple in a field and don't notice it. More than anything, God loves admiration."
Between the books I know why the caged bird sings and the Color Purple, my life would be something totally different. I needed those books to help me live, to help me understand the mixture of ruminations bantering about in my mind, in my body and in my soul. Maya Angelou's book was everything I needed and I needed to understand myself as a young black girl. I needed to understand why I wanted to write but didn't feel as I had a voice. I wanted to understand people and why most adults scared the living day lights out of me. But more importantly I was hoping the book would provide me with the tools to make my pesky brother disappear forever. It's funny when I look back on pictures of me and my brother, I miss those times, I miss the brother I used to have, the one I fought with, laughed with, snuck and watched TV with and the brother who was for the most part my sidekick. I loved bossing him around and I loved feeling powerful over him but he was just as strong as me, so I couldn't use physical force, I had to use my mental power. Truth be told, I just enjoyed having someone around who admired me and with who I admired. He was the color purple in my life.
Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday dear Sweet, Sweet Charlotte, Happy Birthday to me! And then of course I move into the Stevie Wonder rendition of Happy Birthday which I much prefer but I always pay homage to the original version of the Happy Birthday song, hopefully I'm not violating some copyright law because you know someone owns the copyright to the song Happy Birthday which I think is utterly ridiculous. The Happy Birthday song deserves to be in the public domain where it rightfully belongs, I think it's in the constitution or the bill of rights, right?
Todays' affirmation (www.scienceofmind.com) is so perfect for my birthday and it states; Today, I reach out and tell someone I love them. I make kindness and compassion a regular part of my life. I'm going to tell more than a someone, I'm going to tell everyone that I want to tell I love them and I think it is a perfect way to spend my birthday, the day I pushed through the wall of the vajayjay to enter into the earth world. I'm excited, I'm inspired and I'm ready for the rest of my life. But more than anything in the whole wide world, I'm ready for this moment, I am in it, experiencing the now of my living. Each breath is a gift, a settling down of my over active mind and the tremendous opportunity to be LOVE.
I am perfect I am whole and I am complete. I LOVE ME.