Today I am 73 years old. Happy birthday to me.

I have every reason to be thankful to be alive. On several occasions in my lifetime, I have flirted with death, or been exposed to deadly circumstances, twice being saved by merely standing here, rather than standing there … and once being saved by my inexperience with alcohol.

To be alive, to still be alive after all these years and all those close calls, feels almost like a miracle, and is certainly worthy of my deepest gratitude for the life I’ve been given and the life I’ve been spared so many times.