My Third Annual 26th Birthday.

Remember when you turned a certain age and you were completely blown away by how quickly time had flown?

That happened to me this morning. I turned 28 today but I like to call it my Third Annual 26th Birthday. Usually I don't have this extremely profound feeling of crazy time travel on my birthday, but this morning I did. I mean, I really felt it. Perhaps it's because by this age I had hoped to have a child with two legs as opposed to having two children with four legs. Perhaps I had hoped to be an artist or to be living somewhere in the tropics. Who knows why I got the feeling. I woke up this morning another year older, actually feeling the rush of life and the quickness of it all, for the very first time.

I woke up and zombied my way upstairs to get Swagger's collar and leash on, made a cup of coffee, got my toque, boots, winter coat and mitts on and off I went into the pitch black morning. There wasn't a soul around. This is actually my favorite time of day, it's when I do most of my thinking and most of my big decision making. While walking through the open field with the cold wind on my face, I felt very, very bizarre. I got the sweeping feeling that my time here on Earth doesn't even compare to a mere grain of sand on a beach. I'm one person, and the planet doesn't need me here at all. I felt insignificant, irrelevant, my being was trivial.

Well...what a crock! I could go on and on about life being short so "live every day like it's your last, dance like no one is watching"...blah blah blah barf. I woke up feeling funny, walked through the park for a bit feeling funny, and then the eerie, BS thoughts and feelings were quickly disolved when I noticed Swagger was eating something rancid again. I ran across the field yelling "OFF! SWAGGER OFF! LEAVE IT! SIT! OFF! SIT!", breaking the morning peace with my shrill voice (which Swagger pays absolutely no attention to).

I finally reached him and discovered he was gnawing on a crab apple. Thank the lord (the time I caught him eating a baby deer carcass almost sent me over the edge and I was nearly blinded by the stench). I burst out laughing and I rolled around with my pup on the frosty grass for a good ten minutes. Then everything became less heavy again. Life is short alright, and there really is no rhyme or reason for my existence. I pretty much think that humans were a mistake anyway. Am I supposed to mope around thinking about how fleeting life really is? Nope, I shall enjoy every day as it comes, taking pleasure in the little things: my cat's paws, a bright orange maple leaf, catching someone's eye on the subway, wine with a best friend, tobogganing, avocados, my sister's laugh...there's just so much. And plus, I'll want to check-out at some point anyway, so leaving this place a happy human being is important.

Lucky to be alive I say!