May 14, 2024

Happy Birthday

This morning, I woke up a year older than I was when I went to bed. Today was my fifty-second birthday, and I had the day off work. My wife called me early, to wish me a happy birthday. She wanted to be here, but I was happy she was no longer juggling school with a long commute. As soon as I was vertical, I got busy with my morning chores. This meant putting laundry to wash, doing the dishes, and feeding the dogs. After, I made a tall cup of coffee and sat down to write.

While writing, I looked out the dining-room window and noticed the sky had darkened. I went outside and saw the wind was picking up speed. The weather forecast called for a chance of rain today, but it looked like the bad weather had arrived early. I worked quickly to secure the hammock and seat cushions under the pergola. Under the outdoor couch, my wife had stowed a tarp we used to keep everything dry. I used it to cover all the seat cushions. I also covered the Traeger grill and checked the cover on the Solo Stove. About five minutes later, the rain fell.

After an hour, I took a break from writing and went outside under the pergola. It was still raining, but apart from a few splashing raindrops, it was mostly dry under the covered portion of the porch. I stopped to study a wren’s nest that was nestled neatly in the pergola's corner. I stood still with my camera, and after five minutes, a male wren appeared, stopping at several locations, each time nearing the nest. The bird had an enormous spider clenched in its beak and when it arrived at the nest, small chicks poked their tiny heads out and devoured it.

I watched the male wren do this several times. On one approach, the father wren stayed just outside the nest after it fed a chick. The adult bird tweeted at the chick, and the baby bird did an about face, bent down, and stuck its rear end up in the air. Then, as if on queue, the chick pooped out a large white solid mass which the father grabbed with its beak before flying off to dispose of it. The feeding process seemed pretty straightforward. The chicks learned the father’s presence meant there was food to eat. But how did the chicks know how to poop on queue? Nature never ceased to amaze me.

I went back inside to write a little more. As I sat at the table, it started raining harder, strong enough to hear from inside the house. The rain would continue to fall for the rest of the day and night. When I finished writing, I took a long shower and got dressed. Then I sat down at my computer and outlined a few new goals I wanted to work on. I made new goals or reevaluated current ones each year on my birthday. I also did this on New Year’s Day, which effectively cut the year in half. Checking in twice a year, I found, was an effective way to make progress on long-term objectives.

Because it was my birthday, several people contacted me. There were phone calls, emails, texts, and direct messages on social media platforms. It was nice to hear from people, but I never really knew how involved my responses should be. I thought many people were just being polite. I was never one who made a big deal about birthdays. Today was the perfect type of celebration in my book. I was off work, and I didn’t need to leave the house the whole day. It would have been perfect if my wife was home, but we had responsibilities that needed tending.

In the evening, I made plans to get some food from Pino’s Pizza. The rain was falling so hard, however, that I hesitated to leave the house. Famished, I finally made the drive into Wilson to pick up a pepperoni and mushroom pizza, and a slice of cheesecake to celebrate. The drive back and forth felt precarious, as several flooded roads along the way made it easy to hydroplane. I had to drive slowly the entire way home, just so I could see the road.

The pizza and cheesecake were excellent. And the time away from work was a bonus. While I spent my birthday alone, I didn’t really consider my day to be that much different from any other day of the year. Every day here in the woods felt like a small celebration. Today was just one more great day among many others.

Yesterday, I thought I would fish most of the day or go shoot photos somewhere, but the weather had other plans, and, honestly, this was okay with me. The storms kept me shut in, which provided a rare opportunity to shed my normal routines. This created a space for planning, introspection, and a little relaxation.

When I crawled into bed, I thought about how fortunate I have been and how kind life had been to me. I lived in a beautiful place with an amazing partner, and had a good job, and good health. The rain poured down today, washing away the past, clearing room for the upcoming year. As I drifted off to sleep, I wondered how full the creek would be.