Recently I got to celebrate my 44th birthday. It made me realize that for me my birthdays have been shifting in purpose over quite some time. The older I get, the more you start to realize that birthdays really don't matter any more. Well, they matter in the sense that I am grateful to still be alive and enjoying life as it unfolds. But far less more important than it used to be. 
Remember celebrating your birthdays as a kid? All the excitement and anticipation about who was going to visit, and what presents you'd get? Naturally, over time you progress to different insights and anticipations. In fact, there was a time I really didn't care for my birthday at all. It seemed like such a trivial thing and more of a admin chore in sending out invitations etc. Nowadays, I do care about my birthday. But it has taken on a different purpose altogether. Next to acknowledging the gift of being alive and having everyone around you, birthdays are more about giving as opposed to receiving. 

Nowadays, if I want something, I'll just buy it. In fact, most of the times I'd rather buy it myself because I know exactly what I want. It gave me the realisation to turn things around: if I am mostly thankful for the people around me, let's give rather than receive from them. So, I took my family for a day trip to the local sea life aquarium and got to enjoy their smiles of joy and looks of amazement all day long. Such a rewarding way to spend my time! And when I put my 7 year old son to bed he simply sighed about how much he had liked that day. 

I guess they did give me the best present I could think off in the end.