Mental Health Monday

Happy Birthday to Me

So, you ask, do I have anything special planned for this special day, my 66th birthday?

• I'll open birthday cards, assuming I get any. (I've already received 2. I opened them early.) I opened my Social Security "birthday greeting" early, too. I now know what my SS "gift" will be each month, beginning in February.
• I'll take treats to Orphan Grain Train. Our tradition is for those celebrating birthdays to bring treats. I'm letting Wall-mart do my baking for me. (And I'm looking forward to the humorous yet insulting cards I'll be getting from most of my compatriots.)
• Even though it's my birthday, I'll empty the dishwasher, because that's just the kind of guy I am.
• I'll bring cookies to my cardiologist appt this morning. (Maybe I'll get a free ekg.)
• I'll treat myself to a 4th cup of coffee.
• We'll eat Chinese take-out & watch 1 or 2 episodes of Flashpoint on Netflix tonight, because we are 2 wild & crazy people.
• I'll reflect on the joy of knowing that even though I took early retirement in March, 2017, the government considers today to be my official date of retirement.
• Even though I'd be violating a New Year's resolution, I may indulge in one--and ONLY one--partisan column about the 2020 elections. (Why does Joe Biden think that he's the most viable Democratic candidate? Inquiring minds want to know.)

Dept. of Shameless Joke-Stealing *

*Courtesy of Reader's Digest, Nov. 2018

• "During story time, I read a book that mentioned doughnuts growing on trees. Me: 'I want to live in a world where doughnuts grow on trees!" Child: "I want to live in a world where bananas grow on trees.'"
• "Everyone who lined up 30 minutes early to board the plane is gonna be so mad when we all land at the same time."

Justified by His Coming 

“Truth shall spring out of the earth; & righteousness shall look down from heaven.”  Ps. 85:11

“For the fact that Christ came & was born was sheer promise & not merit. And by this very thing we are now justified, namely, by His coming. It is not so that we first became righteous & deserving, & by this fact God was truthful, that He sent Him . . . Therefore Christ came to earth that He might lift us up to heaven. He came to us where we are that He might lead us to Himself where He is.” (Martin Luther Psalm by Psalm, Concordia Publishing House, 2017.)