I turn 50 tomorrow. I'm more or less OK with it. I'll try to skydive in the morning if the weather cooperates, and my parents, whom I'm lucky to still have around, are throwing me a small family gathering in the evening. I'll be with my daughter. That's all I could really want, anyway. I don't need anything, no gifts, nothing like that. I've got all I could ever want.
Instead, here are the things I want for you. I hope you find them valuable.
1) I want you to realize that your vision of who you are is skewed. You're not ugly. You're not as fat as you imagine. You're not as awkward as you think, you're not a loser, and you're not doing worse than all of your peers.
2) I want you to remember that the race isn't with anyone else. It's not a sprint. It's a marathon, it's over the course of your entire life, and the only person you truly need to be better than today, is the person you were yesterday.
3) I want you to remember that spending one day every once in a while not working out and eating two cartons of Ben and Jerry's while lying on the couch binge-watching Better Call Saul doesn't mean you're a bad person. It means you're human, and you shouldn't beat yourself up for it.
4) I want you to remember that when you're at your worst and think you're absolutely and completely alone, you're not. I guarantee you with every ounce of conviction in my body, that if you were no longer here, the world's light would be a little dimmer, and there would be people who would no longer be complete without you.
5) I want you to believe that every screw-up, no matter how bad, how detrimental, or how embarrassing, has a grain of lesson in it, and if you can learn that lesson and apply it to your future, then your screw up was worth it.
6) I want you to understand that YOU will ALWAYS be in control of how YOUR story ends, and you have no obligation to be the same person you were a year, a month, or even a day ago. If you don't like where you are, move. You're not a tree.
7) I want you to reach out and reconnect with someone who has fallen off your radar. I want you to do it today, because tomorrow very well might be too late.
8) I want you to understand that every single one of us has demons lurking inside of us, and every single one of us fights a battle to maintain control over them, every single day. Every single one of us has self-doubt, every single one of us makes the occasional boneheaded mistake, and every single one of us is afraid that we'll never truly succeed. Every. Single. One of us. Including me. Definitely including me.
9) I want you to remember that you're loved. You truly are. If you don't believe you are, head down to your local animal shelter, and sit with a homeless cat or dog for an hour. Then try and tell me you're not loved.
10) Stop trying to speak butterfly to caterpillar people. Not everyone is ready for your special kind of magic, and that's OK. One of the hardest lessons to learn is that some people will never be ready for your kind of magic. But again, that's OK. Spend your precious time focused on the people whose magic vibes with yours.
I wish you a wonderful day today and every day, and as always, I thank you so very much for allowing me into your life.
Much love, light, and peace,
-Peter
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