Celebrating my birthday has always been anticlimactic mostly in my adult life, but even in my youth I felt I was overshadowed by my two older brothers and their birthdays and other accomplishments. So it’s no wonder that as I grew older I wouldn’t even acknowledge my birthday it just didn’t have any relevance, just another day and I was fine with that. The women that loved me felt differently, they wanted a party a reason to have people over to celebrate with us and I never understood why, but I loved them and they loved me so I didn’t really have a say in it. During my single years I celebrated my birthday quietly, alone with myself usually at the beach after a great dinner at a nice restaurant because I was never ashamed to take myself to dinner. The last ten years with my beautiful wife is on a completely different level she celebrates everything, that was something I had to grow into and honestly I am so glad I did because anything that warms the heart or puts a smile on my face is priceless. This year we have the pleasure of celebrating both of our birthdays in Thailand, a first for me and when my wife get the family together there is a abundance of love and laughter, we barely understand one another but the message is clear, “ we love you” it’s that simple, but it’s everything kind in the world. There’s no gifts to exchange just food cooked with more love than you can ever imagine and the smiles that light up the room. There’s simplicity or the whole thing is remarkable, there’s no disappointment because there’s no expectation, the memories are the greatest gift because I can share them.