Happy, Happy Birthday Sharon....

   
       June 3, 2011 and you are 39 once again!  Your secret is safe with me!!!  It's a great day to celebrate the birth of a very, very special person.  While you weren't born in stable with adoring baby animals, angels and wise men around who were guided by a star, your effect on the people whose life you have touched is remarkably similar.  You are wife, mother, ABR therapist, counselor, consoler of a periodically forlorn daughter, mainstay of a somewhat neurotic husband, unconditional care giver to a disabled son.  You also are a homemaker for a chihuahua who is more neurotic than your husband and a poochon who gives the word "dependent" new meaning.  I could make a long list, but later.....first a song which says it all on your birthday.  It's Iz and  "Over the Rainbow/It's a Wonderful World!"  Great lullaby to put your kids to sleep....among other things.

       Well, let me say that it's difficult to sing your praises on your birthday and Mother's Day which are less than 30 days apart.  I think that you could have planned better.  This is a drain on my limited reservoir of emotion and my wallet.  But what the hell, we have learned to take life together as it comes to us.  For 30 years we have been partners and soul mates on one f....ing incredible journey.  No smooth sailing by any means, but we have learned to depend on each other's wisdom.

       Together, we have spawned two beautiful children: an accomplished daughter and a son who is in the process of accomplishing.  I wish he would hurry up, don't you?  On the other hand, I wish she would hurry up too.  Notice how you have to fill in the blanks on these statements of our dreams?  Your role in their development is inexplicable and short of miraculous.  This selfless, unconditional love is what I admire most about you.  I probably fall short, but you know woman who are saints are often attracted to men who are sinners.  I am happy to have you along on this ride.

       Ollie and Chloe are also happy to have you along on their ride.  They, however, are in the driver's seat.  Finicky, demanding, neurotic, periodically incontinent (runs in the family), always hungry for a gourmet meal....and you cater to their every whim even to the point of allowing Chloe to sleep snoring in your ear all night.  Now, the ear plugs make sense.  My wife, for whom "no" is not a word in her vocabulary, is the ultimate care taker...even of the beasts, even of the children.

        You have accomplished a lot in .... years.  Completed several graduate degrees, worked as a teacher and counselor in education, continue to be great mother when time would dictate that retirement is sitting on the deck with a brew, cleaner,  carer of a handicapped kid, author of a book, learning the piano (again), and learning to be skilled in the fine art of blowing off indifferent people.  (The latter I taught you, but probably will not be given the credit.)  So much is such a short period of time, only....years.

        Anyways, it's your birthday to enjoy, but that doesn't mean that you get the day off...there are no days off in this house.  It does means that you get to know that you are loved, appreciated and admired by adults, children and beasts.  Happy, happy ...th birthday.  I am looking forward to our 30th anniversary (again)!  Oh, by the way, in our next lifetime in the world of normality, keep a reasonable spread between your birthday and Mother's Day.