The 99th Year

Count your blessings

As you would the twinkles in a constellation

Or the candles on the birthday cake

Of your ninety-ninth year.

Thank yourself for your limits

And your boundaries

And your reckless abandon

And your mistakes. Your beautiful mistakes.

Bundle up the very best seconds

The most powerful lessons

And lock them in a place that you'll come back to

When you are too proud to remember

That you are human.

It's those voids within us that we try most to forget

But they love us so much

In ways that we will never understand

It's time to admit that we know nothing and

To close our eyes to be able to see everything.

Why don't we sing as though the world is deaf

And live as though we're dying

And laugh and laugh

Until it is time to count the candles

Of our ninety-ninth year.