It’s been far too long since last I updated this journal…

Today is my first day working from home in quite some time. It has been good in some ways, hard in others. Melanie and the kids have really left me alone, and so I have gotten quite a bit done… but I’ve had lots of administrivia kinds of things to do so I don’t feel very productive. Tomorrow should be all good 🙂

I had a birthday party. It was very nice. Chris, Jeanne, Kristine, Celine and Alexei came. I was very happy that it was small. We had a great meal of home-made hamburgers (paprika, steak spice and soy sauce). After dinner, I opened a few presents. Melanie got me a very nice small prayer book called “Prayers of Ecstasy” which has recently been published by Palabra. I didn’t take many photos. This party was very small compared to my 30th birthday party last year.

Last year I wanted to have a special party for my 3rd decade of life. I told people to not bring me presents. Instead, I asked people to come to “A Celebration of Significance”:

to which you will bring a gift of wisdom, beauty or philosophy to share with everyone. Consider music, poetry, quotations from spiritual, philosophical or fictional works, even something you have created yourself – anything you consider significant in your life.

We had the party at our place in Elmvale. Unfortunately I did not yet have the digital camera, but we did take photos and video. Someday 🙂 I will digitize some of them and put them up here.

Everyone came through with some really interesting “gifts” to share. My friend Ying wrote a Chinese proverb and explained it to us, I shared a song I really liked at the time, some people shared stories, recipes, and other things. All-in-all it was a very beautiful experience. Thanks!