Today, I turn 55. You can’t begin to imagine just how happy and proud I am to reach this mile stone. So many people become depressed when they have a birthday and some religions don’t even want to acknowledge it, which really baffles me. A birthday is a wondrous and joyous thing. It marks another year that you have the honor and privilege to be alive.

Some may say that I have no idea how terrible their life is, and I understand that, but pain and sorrow is all relative. Some people cry at a broken nail and others smile in the face of starvation. It is a choice on how you see and face life.

I have a shit load of sarcoidosis related conditions that would make most people incapacitated, but each day I wake up and I say “Thank you for the opportunity to experience another day. I hope that I am able to appreciate and learn something from every experience and every encounter I have, and in some small way, I make a positive difference in the planet today.”

At night when I lay my head on the pillow I say “Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to complete another day on this planet, and I hope that I was able to learn something, either consciously or subconsciously as well as make a small positive mark on the planet and if I am given the opportunity again tomorrow I hope to be better than I was today.”

As for regrets, if I could go back in time and give advice to my 19 year old self, it would be to change nothing. Every perfect thing or mistake, good or bad thing, correct or wrong turn, right and wrong choice are all what made me the man I am today and I can truly say that I can look in the mirror and say to the man looking back at me “I am well pleased”