By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer
“Free returns.” That phrase catches my eye when I’m shopping, whether in person or online. If it doesn’t work for, fit, or please me, I can return or exchange it. Sounds like many happy returns, right?
Nope.
Many happy returns is a shortened phrase derived from a longer expression from the 1700s: “Many happy returns of the day.” Essentially it meant, “We hope this day comes around for you again and again.”
Today we reserve many happy returns for birthdays—those mile markers we can’t return or exchange.
Since I recently celebrated another birthday, I’d like to share a few tips I’ve picked up over the years.
Here’s hoping your many happy returns will be truly happy, regardless of how many you’d like to return.
10 Birthday Tips for Happy Returns
1: Don’t weigh yourself on your birthday. It’s depressing and you shouldn’t be depressed on your birthday.
2: Do not shop for a swimsuit on your birthday. See number 1.
3: Do not diet. Never eat diet food on your birthday. Eat whatever you are hungry for, which is usually cake and ice cream.
4: Do not eat the candles on the cake (if you get one). Wax sticks between your teeth and makes it look like you ate the candles on your cake.
5: Do not expect people to remember your birthday. You are not Viggo Mortensen, the first lady, or a prime minister. This means your spouse, children, parents, siblings, and co-workers may not remember. Yes, it is wonderful if they do, but don’t let that expectation grab you by the throat, because when they forget (and some or all of them will) the unmet expectation will drag you down. Instead try one of the remaining five tips.
6: Send a card to someone you know with the same birth month.
7: Find someone with a need that you can meet and meet it—like a stay-at-home mother of small children who could use an afternoon off. Deliver groceries or do a chore for someone who has trouble getting around.
8: Donate your age in food by weight or dollar value to a local shelter.
9: Donate your age in money to the pregnancy center or other charitable organization.
10: Smile. Be grateful that you are under the sky and above the grass. Thank God for another year, day, hour, and breath. Some people would give anything for just one more.
Gratitude is an amazing antidote for just about everything – even age.
~
In everything give thanks;
for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
1 Thessalonians 5:18
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