March 17, 2024
Today is David’s birthday. He was born on a mild March Monday on St. Patrick’s Day in 1975, and while there doesn’t seem to be any ancient Celtic or Gaelic legends about St. Patrick’s Day babies being born lucky, I consider it to be a pretty lucky day for me.
Last night while waiting for sleep, I was having these sad thoughts that often trample around my mind’s garden such as how many more birthday and anniversaries David and I would get to celebrate together. I awoke this morning plagued with the same intrusiveness, so I decided to not give those thoughts the power they were demanding today. Instead, I worked on a gratitude list of things about my favorite person while he was napping on the couch.
-His parents for having him
-His sense of humor
-His beautiful mind
-His willingness and skill to fix things
-His unwillingness to let me feel sorry for myself
-His natural ability to be a great Dad
-His smile and dimples I can’t see because of the beard but know they are there.
-His laughter when watching the most ridiculous movies and tv shows on earth
-His introspectiveness
-His back rubs
-His willingness to listen
-His enthusiasm when he teaches a class
-His telling me, in detail, about the dreams he had while sleeping
-His simplicity
-His adaptability
-His social awkwardness
-His willingness to do what it takes
-His orange shoes for no other reason than they make him happy
-His secret feeling of pride when he hears indirectly of a compliment made about him
-His uncomfortableness when he is complimented directly
-His bear hugs
-His patience
-His countless rewatching of movies he loves and can quote like Big Lebowski, Pulp Fiction, Dark Knight, O Brother Where Art Thou
-His sarcasm
-His made-up dad jokes
-His compassion and non-judgement
-His selective forgetfulness
-His quick thinking
-His love for animals (and our clowder of cats)
-His sensitivity
-His disbelief that he hasn’t been canonized for taking out the trash
-His silences
-His excited explanations
-His catching an insect and putting it safely out of the house without harming it.
-His disproportionately skinny legs
-His ability to build sand sculptures, and Lego, and anything he wants
-His voice
-His brown eyes
-His love for beef jerky, hot, hot sauces, and childlike joy for atomic fire balls (if he can ever find them)
-His positivity
-His fondness for Taylor Swift
-His admittedly knowing all the lyrics and singing along to Taylor Swift
-His lack of rhythm
-His loyalty to the Atlanta Falcons no matter what
-His creativity
-His knowing exactly the right things to say and do
-His strength (both physical and mental)
-His kisses
-His wonderment each day as to why he is so tired (while having Stage IV colorectal cancer)
-His smirk
-His acceptance
-His analogies
-His refrigerator notes
-His generosity
-His stopping to move turtles out of the road
-His shyness
-His cold feet
-His reaching to hold my hand
-His love for cars and shows about cars
-His hyper focus
-His sense of direction
-His spaghetti, banana pudding, anything grilled, pancakes, and cheese fries
-His low-key competitiveness
-His courage
-His unabashed nerdiness
-His advice
-His writing and bad spelling
-His friendship
-His loud heart beat
-His uncanny ability to always eat the one thing I was saving for myself in the fridge
-His silliness
-His natural optimism
-His support
-His always, without fail, letting me know me when his ears pop like at higher altitudes or just for any reason at all.
-His random ticklishness
-His yelling at the football players on TV on Football Sunday, Monday, and Thursday
-His unashamed choice of huge geriatric intended sunglasses just because they fit over his glasses.
-His almost stereotypical French nonchalance
-His sharing of social media videos he thinks are interesting or funny
-His surprise and amusement every single time when he tells me something of interest he read or saw only for me to say yes I know because I AM THE ONE THAT TOLD/SENT YOU THAT!
-His beard (even though I miss seeing his whole face)
-His sometimes maddeningly weird exuberance for beating me to checking the mail each day
-His unwavering “it will be ok even when it isn’t”
-His willingness to try anything at least once
-His complete okayness when I don’t have the right candles for his cake and I improvise
-the other countless things I can’t think of right now or will keep for myself
Happy Birthday David. The sun shines when you are around. You make life worth living and are a reason that someone keeps getting up in the morning.
