"Happy Birthday..."

Today is my 47th birthday. That seems like a strange thing to say. I don't feel 47. I don't think that I look 47. It seems like it was just yesterday that I was starting college. And yet, here I am, celebrating 47 years of life on this earth. It was a great day. I think that it has taken me a long time to learn this, but I did something today that I have never done on my birthday. No, I didn't go bungee jumping and parachute out of an airplane. I did not involve myself in any "bucket list" behavior. This year, I celebrated my birthday by spending the morning with over 20 people from my church at the Special Olympics of Orange County. It was a great day. We worked at the soccer venue. Our job was to cheer on the athletes, to keep score, and help out any way that we could. But, mainly, we cheered on the athletes. It was an inspiring time. Maybe it is because I am 47, and I am spending more time thinking about the legacy of my life than I once did. But, I realized something today. If I never celebrate a birthday just for myself, that will be o.k. Spending my day trying to inspire others (but, more often than not, being inspired by them) is a perfect way to reflect in my life the values that I proclaim with my words. Put more simply, God has given me 47 incredible years - with far more joy than I deserve. What better way to celebrate than to share with others what God has so freely given me? I am reminded by the closing words to the poem "The Summer Day" by Mary Oliver. "I don't know exactly what a prayer is. I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down into the grass, how to kneel in the grass, how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields, which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done? Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon? Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?" I don't know the secret to the meaning of life. But, I do know how to cheer at a soccer game, to encourage someone else in a righteous endeavor, to make a "victory tunnel" after the game. Tell me, what should I do with my one wild and precious 47th birthday?