Birthdays are a day to celebrate that you exist. Agree or disagree? (LOH #293)

It seems that birthdays appear to create very different responses in different people. I, for one, love being celebrated on my birthday. In fact, it feels really important to me that I am with people who love me, who show me that they're really happy that I'm alive.

I know many people who tend to do nothing much for their birthdays. They don't want the attention. Or they think it's no big deal. Or, for some reason, their birthday is such a painful reminder of something that they prefer to try and pretend that it doesn't exist.

When my birthday rolled around just recently, I realised, more clearly than ever before, that celebrating things and especially celebrating myself/being celebrated is really, really important to me.

That's not to say that I'm not grateful for the presents I received and the handful of people who texted, voice messaged, or called me, for the couple of cards and being taken out for lunch by my Mister. That was all wonderful.

More than that, I'm grateful to be alive. To have safely made my way through the world long enough to be quietly celebrating the fact that I've made it into my forties. I have much to be thankful for.

And, my heart longs for a joyful celebration of my existing in the world.

So next year, and every year into the future, my plan is to have some kind of party or special event. I'm going to prioritise being with people who want to make a fuss over me, shower me in hugs, and joyfully, loudly, enthusiastically claim how awesome I am.

That might seem silly, trivial or unnecessary to some people, but for some reason, it's really important to me. So I'm going to make it happen.

{Photo of me in a 'party dress', remembering what it's like to dress up and feel fabulous. Photo taken by my steady steed, new.things }

This post was written in response to one of the prompts in the Ladies of Hive Community this week. irenenavarroart asked us:

Do you like celebrating your own birthday? Or are you more of a celebrator of other people's birthdays? What would you like to do for your next birthday?

And it made me think the things I've already shared, but also, I think that my desire to celebrate extends well beyond just celebrating myself on one day of the year. It extends to celebrating people and life every day of the year, at any opportunity I have.

So, to that end, is there anything cool that you've done this week, dear reader, that you're proud of or happy about that you'd like me to celebrate? Tell me in a comment below! 👇