What does The Universe want to tell you about your birthday?
And what to do with a writing prompt that doesn’t spark joy
It’s my birthday today.
I’ve officially reached level 45 in my life, and it feels… powerful!
Unfortunately, even though I receive a lot of love at this time, I have a complicated relationship with this day. (And the above photo has made me I realize when my complicated relationship with the colour pink began.)
Last year I shared the following: (Click here to read the full post.)
“I came up with a fun way to respond to a writing prompt that wasn’t sparking any joy for me.
The prompt was inspiring me to write about being born on my grandmother’s birthday. The same grandmother who was a Jehovah’s Witness. If you’re not familiar with the religion, Jehovah’s Witnesses aren’t supposed to celebrate birthdays, and yet my Gran always called me her birthday present.
For the first two decades of my life, celebrations for my special day included huge servings of guilt, confusion, and cake.
My biggest birthday wish was that I had been born three weeks earlier on the delivery date the doctors originally gave my parents. It was the only way I could imagine I’d have a birthday that was all my own. (FYI, the next two decades of my life have included me dealing with all the gunk that still comes up around my birthday at the end of August.)”
So, while I’m not the biggest fan of my birthday, even though it is sweet to share it with my cat, Miss Violet, I have no issues with getting older.
It helps that I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis shortly before my 40th birthday and I was in SO much pain that I didn’t think I’d survive to see 41, never mind 45. But I do not recommend going out and getting yourself your own life threatening disease to help you appreciate aging.
But here I was with a writing prompt, given to me by
, that felt like it was taunting my trauma. Usually, Molly’s prompts pulled ideas out of my hands and out onto a page in record time. But this one didn’t make me want to write. Nor did it make me excited to read about other people's happy birthday celebrations. But I still wanted to share something with my writing group. So I challenged myself to come up with a fun way to work with it.And I found a way!
What you’re about to read was originally going to be part of a larger project. A project that was born out of me trying to figure out how to write about a day that I wish had come with an instruction manual.
So my first attempt at responding to this prompt ended up being… an instruction manual.
But it didn’t feel right.
Then I started to think about an offer letter a person might get when accepting a new job. Like the one I received many moons ago but refused to sign.
This made me think about all the paperwork and letters that are included in a welcome package a person might get when they start working at a corporate company. The kind of package that an eager employee might read and attempt to memorize when they’re new… but they’ll likely forget about once they’re submerged in the day-to-day realities of what it’s actually like to work there.
So, I went ahead and created a “Welcome Package” for me from “The Universe.”
And The Universe was one heck of a muse!
The Welcome Package includes letters filled with important information, like spoiler alerts, I wish I had access to before heading into tense situations.
However, that project, the Welcome Package from The Universe, has since come to a halt, and I’m not sure when it’ll be resurrected. But until a bigger decision is made about it, I’d like to share the letter that inspired the project—the letter I wrote about my birthday.
But before I do, we need to talk.
Until now, everything that I’ve shared with you via Substack has been free. You have access to 60+ posts filled with stories, weird obsessions, and recommendations. My only hope is that you’ve enjoyed reading some of them as much as I enjoyed writing them for you.
However, this post is different. Only paid subscribers will have access to the letter I’m about to share.
Of course, more free posts are coming.
But from now on when I feel it necessary to honour myself and protect my heart, I will restrict access to some of my writing to paid subscribers only.
If you have feelings about this. I understand.
Feel free to feel them.
I know I’m biased, but visual journaling your way through them may be helpful. There are several posts in the archive where I’ve explained how I’ve used my journaling practice to work through some of my feels.
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Now, without further ado…
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