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| Dear Life….available here |
Today is my birthday.
I’m 37 years young.
Since having True, we’ve been getting all our life business in order. Living wills. Last will and testaments. Durable power of attorneys. As I was completing the last part of my will recently – the part that asks what kind of burial/ceremony/etc I’d like to have – I started to write down specific details about the kind of celebration and gathering I’d like for my friends and family to attend when I die. I wanted music, and chocolate, and storytelling, and photos, and laughter…a celebration of a well lived, well loved life.
There was something about that process that was so emotional for me – imagining my not being here in this physical container/body, in this lifetime, on this planet, in this world, with this family, with these friends, inside this one juicy little ol’ life of mine. Because the truth is is that I really, really love living. I love everything about living. The lessons, the love, the tiny moments, the beauty, the adventures, the learning and unlearning, the ahas, the meltdowns, the creativity, the relationships, the….journey. Living is a journey I’m quite in love with.
So today, for my 37th birthday, I made a little love note (a quick collage), addressed to life. Because in the end, I want everyone to know that I genuinely, truly, passionately loved living. And how grateful I was for every. single. breath.
XO
ps: If you’re up for commenting, finish this sentence, “Dear Life, thank you for…..” I’d love to know. Let’s start a juicy, rich, full of awesomeness. And let’s wish every day, and every breath a happy birthday of its own.
Dear Life, thank you for the ups and downs. The downs make me a more compassionate and loving human being… And thank you for all the wonderful people who love me.
Happy Birthday Kelly.. I hope one day to meet you!
regina rosenzweig
Happy birthday Kelly! Thank you for such a beautiful and inspiring website.
Dear Life – thank you for every new day, and every opportunity. Thank you for my beautiful boys who make every day so special! xx
Dear Life…maker of heaven and earth, thank you that in my weakness' which are many You are strong
Dear Life,
Thank you for the best gift of all…my imagination. It is a playground of possibilities that with your help, I get to make real every day.
Happy Birthday, Kelly!
Dear Life,
Thank you for a million second chances; for so much to learn and all of the books, film and people to learn from. Thank you for hugs and for kisses. Thank you for the visual arts, oh yes, thank you for them very much.
H. B. Miss Kelly Rae. I am a Gemini girl too. There is another gratitude: thank you for an early summer birthday (OK, reeeally late spring birthday.)
Love,
Robinsunne
Happy Birthday you beautiful soul xxx
Dear Life..Thank you, for all the ups and down of which there have been many. Thank you for where I am now, I am very grateful to be still here. xxx
Happy Birthday, Kelly! I'm glad that I found you and hope you touch many more lives!!
Dear Life, Thank you for Health, Family, Friends, and Happiness. Thank you for showing me my true self in my art.
Dawn
What a beautiful testament to the joy of living!! A very happy birthday to you, Kelly Rae!!
Dear Kelly, May you have the happiest day ever.
Dear Life, thank you for all moments– past, present and future.
Wishing you a happy beautyful day in celebration of you making your way here, to this wonderful planet….37 years ago!
Dear life. Thank you for being there, available for me to occupy you in the first place, so that I, in my own pace can grow and become a generator of life and light while I leatn how to be in you. I am truly grateful!
dear life thank you for giving me 59 years of life. Kelly we are birthday twins, so here is to the June 20th babies!
toni ann
Dear Life I thank you for my husband~ my best friend and the love of my life. So thankful that our union brought two amazingly wonderfully talented boys into this world. Also, I'm so thankful for my family & friends.
Life~ Thank You for waking me up everyday with a feeling that I am living fully, joyfully and with a heart filled with gratitude 😀
Maggie xoxox
Happy Birthday sweet woman…!
Dear Life… thank you for providing an open door to all that is possible. It's a very powerful thing.
xo
…scatter joy…
Dear Life, thank you for second chances, quiet abiding love, leaves, children's laughter, cherries, queen anne's lace and knowing deeply and truly that you don't end here; even when I don't think you can get any better…you do.
and thank you lovely life for my sweet sister, my bright eyed, round cheeked sunshine smiler…leader of dreams and dreamers, seeker of all that is True.
PS Happy 37th….it only keeps getting better!
Dear Life,
Thank you for the layers of possiblility that unfold each morning when my eyes open and I realize the day is mine to unwrap.
Love,
Susan
"Dear Life, thank you for motherhood, as it changed me forever and made me a better person. Oh and for chocolate!"
I hope you have a beautiful birthday Kelly Rae! 🙂
Happy Birthday!! Yay! May your year be filled with more joy, more laughter, and more of everything good!
Dear Life, thank you for helping me to grow and flourish 🙂
Dear Life, thank you for helping me learn, through the years, how to truly live my life in full.
(sending you deep deep love, kelly rae. happy you, happy day).
dear life,
thank you for taking me into the dark, the shadows, the roughest terrains of all, so that i could retrieve with deep knowing the wisdom and compassion that was waiting for me. you're tough love, but love after all. and even on a day like today, i thank you.
love,
rach
Happy, joyful birthday to you Kelly Rae!
Dear Life, thank you for this gift of Now and the memories and moments that go with living life to the fullest! And many thank yous for my family and friends, people who have brought such fullness and love into my life! And thank you for the magical moments and the mystery of synchronicity which I love!
Wishing you love, laughter, health and happiness!
~ Lindy
Dear Life, Thank you for slapping me upside the head exactly when I need it. You rock!
Happiest of birthdays, Kelly Rae! And just to add one more good thing: it gets even better in your 40s. It just keeps getting better.
Dear Life, thank you for waiting until I was ready, thank you for understanding that I was confused and hurt, for holding me gently and waiting patiently as I grieved, thank you for showing up with your whole brilliant self when I finally took that first step, when I opened my eyes and woke up, thank you for making me laugh. Special thanks for dogs.
Dear Kelly-
Your post made me cry. I see so many people trying to be like the next person and what I love so much about you is your authenticity.
You have been given a great talent and I'm sure the Lord is well pleased.
Happy day filled with blessings, surprises, smiles and hugs.
Love – Cheryl Thompson
…for showing me that vulnerability and loss can prove to be strengths and can turn into gifts to be shared.
Happy Happy Day of you Kelly Rae!
Happy, happy day! Hope you enjoy your special day in all its fabulousness.
"Dear Life, thank you for…..
Color! Color I can get lost in. Texture that astounds me.
Thank you for my son, and for incredibly sweet moments among the rough-and-tumble that is a 7-yr.-old boy.
Thank you for love in all its expression."
thank you for letting me wake up to a house full of laughter, running and chaos from my 3 beautiful kids. in all that, i realize i am one lucky girl 🙂
happy birthday, kelly rae ~*
Happy Birthday Kelly Rae!!!
Dear Life, thank you for letting me live, love, learn, fall, fly and dream with you. Just lately I've realize I'm right where I need to be, and more life is opening up to me second by second. Thank you for every bit of it.
Jamie
Dear Life–thank you for the beautiful blessings you have bestowed upon me. A husband whom I adore, littles who give me reason to smile every day and for my little angel who went to live with Jesus…
Dear Life-
Thank you for letting me live to experience my first wedding anniversary next week with my loving husband Charlie. It took 41 years to get it right, and glad you did not give up on me.
Happy birthday Kelly Rae!
Happy Birthday to you!!!!
"Dear Life, thank you for giving me this chance to fulfil everything I dream about….to give every person a chance to make a difference in the world and to make other lifes easier and wonderful too!".
I had 2 people in my life who took their own lifes….it was so very sad…something I can't understand very well, but I know they were in a very dark place. I try to remember to live fully, because some people can't and they need help.
Happy Birthday Kelly Rae!!
Dear life.. where do I begin..
Thank you for:
-this breath
-my two little(getting bigger every day)kiddos
-a healthy body/mind
-my loving husband
-all the hard lessons I am still learning
-plenty of hugs and kisses
-believing in me
-pulling me out the yuck
-for showing me how amazing other people are
-for giving me second chances
Happy Birthday!
Dear Life, thank you for teaching me invaluable lessons and showing me a world of possibilities.
Happy birthday!! You are such a sweet soul! And such an inspiration… I know that you've probably heard that soooo many times, but I had to add it once again. I only found you a few months ago and have been pouring over all your old posts. Your journey has been AMAZING! I really hope that our paths will cross someday. (you are my Oprah!)
Dear Life,
Thank you for showing me that I can, when that little voice inside is telling me that I can't.
Bless you!!!
Happy birthday Kelly Rae.
Thank you for celebrating you here in the little space. I find your honesty and love of living life, both the joys and trials to be so inspiring. It's once we get real with life and decide to meet it with heart and soul that we then find the courage to grow. You truly are an example of that growth, it's exciting to see you continue to spread your wings!
Happy wishes for a lovely day.
April
Happy Birthday! Thanks for this wonderful inspiration- hope your day is as beautiful as you are 🙂
Dear life-
Thank you for being so incredible- every day, every week, gets more rich, deep, full, loving, and amazing. I had no idea I wasn't even really living for so many years- thanks for not abandoning me or giving up. I'm here now- ready to soak it up, live it to the fullest, take chances, go big, and laugh often. Can't wait to see where the next few decades take us- it's going to be incredible!
Cheers!
Dear Life, thank you for…letting me try one more time a million times over.
Happy Birthday, Kellie Rae! I'm thankful you were put on the Earth. 🙂
XO,
Amanda
Dear Life, thank you for my new baby Sophy and her Daddy. They are definitely the loves of my life and make every day an adventure. It seemed likely we would never have a baby so now that she's here, I'm grateful everyday and there's noting better than listening to her giggle and watching her figure out the world.
Dear life… You're wonderful, unpredictable, and miraculous. And I wound't have it any other way!
Happy Birthday! On my birthday every year, I write myself a letter. I make sure to tell myself how proud I am of all the accomplishmens I made throughout the year and then set new goals for the new year. Then, on the same day one year later, I read back through my letter before writing my new one. It's amazing how fast it goes, it feels like just yesterday you wrote the letter before the one you're about to write. It really puts into perspective how quickly it passes and how we really should grab onto every moment before it fades. Enjoy your 37th year because 38 is just 365 days away!
Happy, Happy Birthday, Kelly Rae! I simply can't get enough of your art — or your insights on this wonderful experience we call Life. Love it.
Dear Life, thank you for reminding me over and over again that everything is as it should be and it this life is all I get. I am SO loving it right now. Thank you for that, too!
Happy Birthday Kelly Rae! ((Hugs))
You are a wonderful "old" soul 🙂
Dear Life, thank you for all those rites-of-passages, they make me keenly aware of you; thank you for the joyous moments, when I want to go skipping down the street, leaping, shouting, sprinkling glitter and blowing bubbles.
Thank you life for those times when I sat in the abyss, in the dark, frightened and shivering, thinking I couldn't go on and shone a pen light, leading me the way out!
Thank you life for putting people in my life, that allows my heart to grow bigger and bigger and thank you for my children, who give me such utter joy, my soul bursts into song at the sight of them.
Finally, but never least, thank you life for a man, that after 20 years, the butterflies still flutter at the sight of him.
Damn, life, you simply ROCK on with and one day without me! 🙂
Happy birthday, Kelly Rae – celebrate in style!
Dear Life, thank you for the gifts you've brought my way, the trials and tribulations; , and most importantly my family. Each experience along the way has made me the strong woman I am today.
Dear Life, thank you for your heartbeat, for love won and lost, and all the lessons Ive learnt from you. You are showing me the way to myself in the most perfect way xxx
Hi Kelly,
Happy Birthday!!! Hope you'll have a good one.
I've read your book and it is one of the books that made me see that I too could create things. I'm trying watercolor for the first time today… Excited!
Dear Life, thank you for the hardships. They enable me to truly appreciate life, what I have and what I can do.
Love from Bordeaux, FR
Happy Birthday Kelly! You are truly an inspiration by living an authentic life with such a high ethic!! I appreciate you,your wonderful art, and all that you share of yourself!!!Thank-you!!
Dear Life, I love you and feel so blessed, thank-you for the peace and love you sprinkle on my truly grateful heart daily!!!
WOOT!!!
♥Happy Birthday!♥
Dear Life, thank you for gently introducing me to my true self, through my art!
Have a wonderful day Kelly Rae.
Erin x
Many happy returns! Wishing you a wonderful day.
"Dear Life, thank you for … laughter, for more happy moments than sad, for warm embraces that last longer than I thought I needed. Oh and for sunshine and words and patterns and … "
i'm a silent reader and adore your art. but i wanna say "happy birthday". it's defenitly the greatest happieness being able to say: i love my life!
have a very beautiful day!
(and thanks a lot for your great and hope-giving art!)
best wishes, doro K.
Dear Life, thank you for not giving up on me, even when I gave up on you. ♥