As I celebrate my birthday this month, I am reflecting back on the best birthday gift/wish ever – the one that I never got. And a story that I’m never tired of telling.

September 6, 2009.
9 months after my 2nd kid was born, in the 7th year of our marriage, sprinkled with bouts of post-partum depression and the 7-year marriage ich – My husband forgot my birthday.

He didn’t realize it the next day either. And I was upset. Didn’t have the energy to blow up and get mad, but was very upset and wanted to be by myself. So I signed up for the Labor Day Classic 10k which was the day after and went off, encouraged by my still clueless husband (why a 10k run instead of going off for a pedicure or hanging out with girlfriends – I still don’t know).

That birthday gave in me a spark to do something for myself. To do something that went back to defining me as myself, not just a wife and a mother. I felt happy (the runners high) for the first time in a long time, and that happiness lasted me the entire day (even though my husband realized his faux pas only by nighttime). I didn’t really act on it for another 2-3 months, but my metamorphosis had started.

Weird twist that the Universe threw at me that day when my husband gifted me the best gift ever, by giving me a drive to move to control my life and my body. (That doesn’t mean that he’s off the hook for future gifts 🙂 )

2009 – Nervous and not too excited with life in general. 2012 – Happy, confident and excited with life and a whole of other things.

For those that asked – that was the only occasion that he has ever missed, before and since then. And  although he is embarrassed every time I remind him, I am truly thankful for the turn of events.