the Empathy List #102: A Birthday Present?

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Hello friend, Liz here.

I turned 36 yesterday and I am utterly delighted—always, I’ve wanted to be older than I was.

My husband does not feel this same way about his birthdays, which tend to feel more like funary tunes to him (though he’s only two years older than I am), so he told the kids I was turning 25. I corrected him because, actually, I have earned every one of these years. ;-)

Every skin roll, wrinkle and sun spot, every grey hair, every laughline and pound: it’s all mine and all earned through years of suffering and joy.

So this is my own virtual birthday party. ;-) (Image: Andy Warhol’s, “After the Party”)

Here’s what 36 years have been for me:

I have married a good partner and we’ve stayed married for twelve years, going on thirteen;

I have birthed two children from my own body, literally in an inflatable pool in my living room with no drugs and under the care of midwives;

I have developed a surprise blindness in my right eye, a strange and invisible disability;

I have written t…