Today is my birthday! Twenty-five is a big number for me.

I’m finally grown-up enough to rent a car without extra surcharges. I’ve lived an entire quarter of a century, birthed two children from my lady parts, and feel incredibly blessed to just be living.

I am healthy and strong. I eat my veggies and actually like them now. I still have (up to?) seventy-five years left of awesomeness to spend with my best friend Tyler and I couldn’t be more thrilled about it. (The kids are more than welcome to tag along on our adventures.)

I feel like I spent 24 in recovery. Grief + sadness + pain, with a little bit of joy mixed in there every now and again. An entire year, wasted. But I am wiser for it. And I am more capable of choosing to be happy than I ever thought possible.

It really is MAGICAL, this whole growing-up thing. The sun is shining, & I can already tell that twenty-five is going to be most excellent indeed.