birthday girl

It's cup runneth over time. Nice that the whole country celebrates my birthday with a holiday, isn't it? So quiet out there. Below is what greeted me this morning. The garden made me cry.

Rose of Sharon exploding, ridiculous hydrangeas, rudbeckia, echinacea, golden glow, mint, clematis and more. Plus fresh-picked cherry tomatoes, cukes, lettuce and beans for dinner. The bounty of the generous earth. I have just ordered as my birthday present a book called "The Hidden Life of Trees."

My family are arriving at some point soon - the wading pool is filled and ready, there are steaks in the fridge for a special barbecue, and fresh corn from the Stratford farmer's market. My other huge treats already today:
1. Facebook, how I love Facebook, almost everyone I know in the world is writing to wish me a good day. I love you all! So grateful to be in your thoughts.
2. Boot camp at the Y at 9 this morning, led by Carole, my inspiration, grandmother of 3 grown women and lean and muscly like a greyhound. I hurt now, but what a good pain.
3. Practicing the piano - able (clumsily) to play the first of the Goldberg Variations, which was also played by Glenn Gould. You would not mistake my version for his, but still, my fingers are playing what he played. It's hard, because the minute I learn something, I forget it. Motto, for those of you who are under 60: learn it now!
4. Skyping just now with Lynn in Provence, meeting her grandchildren over the internet, saying hello to her daughter Myriam, whom I knew as a toddler, now the beautiful mother of two Muslim sons.
And, more generally ...
5. Justin Trudeau and Canada.
6. My health.
7. My work, both writing and teaching.
8. My home.
And most of all ...
9. Family and friends.

Cup overfloweth.

Losses this year: my father's cousin George, one of the last of Jacob Gordin's grandsons, a dear friend, in Washington D. C. Much missed.

Otherwise - onward, grateful for every minute. My father died at 65; he did not have a 66th birthday. From now on, every minute is a bonus.