SOCIAL MEDIA LOVE

This year, my birthday was different.
I wore black, as always... Lol.
It was quiet, just as I have come to prefer that my birthdays remain. It was reflective, yes, as my birthdays have always been.
It was profoundly spiritual too, because, for me, my birthday is New Year's Day and I fall into a deep communion with God and self on this day, every year.
And it was full of love, just as it has been, through the years...

But this year, it was the LOVE that was different.

Right from the very moment of our conception, we begin to grow, to develop. Much of our development within the womb is of a biological nature.
Then we are born and the biological development continues, but our environment begins to have a significant impact on our emotional intelligence and psychological well-being.
And, of course, there's our education, the all-important process of the acquisition of knowledge.
We begin to know things and we think that we know things and we don't know things.
Then we get jobs and we work hard and we realise that money isn't everything.
We grow older
Then we love people and we're loved by people who aren't our family members...

At some point all of our personal and selfish growth and development should begin to touch other people, shouldn't it?

So I've celebrated the conceptions of love-children.
I've sang praises for the births of other women's bundles-of-joy.
I've giggled and marveled at the beauty that is the growth of a child, even though I have not birthed one.
I've learnt to reach deep into my soul, so that I can breathe love and joy into the souls of others.
And I've also learnt that empathy can prevent suicides.
I've cried with widows and widowers and I've cried on behalf of the infertile mother.
My tongue has spoken for the tortured, mutilated spirits of rape victims.
My blood has boiled with anger for the man whose wife made him a cuckold and broke his masculine spirit.
My head bursts with theories and words and figures and formulae and hypotheses and analyses and techniques;
And such knowledge do I impart unto other people, young and old, alike.
I know some things, I think that I know some things and there's still so much to know, to learn.
I've grown older, but my heart remains evergreen with love and joy.
And I've been loved.

This year, my birthday was different...
This year, the love was different...

At some point all of our personal and selfish growth and development should begin to touch other people, shouldn't it?
Even if your reach is limited to social media?

I've tried to make sure that mine did, does and will...
And what did I get in return?
All of you showered me with love and spoke blessings into my life, into my heart, into my soul.
You brought tears to my eyes, as you celebrated me with all of your might.
And I cannot repay you for that, because love, especially that kind of pure, genuine, untainted love, is priceless.

But my words will not fail me today, as I say thank you;
Because I've found that love does exist on social media.