This month I turn 50, which feels like a bigger number of years than I ever expected to be on this planet and I must admit that am delighted.

One thing I’ve learned from being this many years old is that there is significant pleasure in re-visiting my memories. At times I will close my eyes and remember things like the smell of mint growing near my grandmother’s back steps, the way the sun shone through the windows on my blue gingham bedspread in my childhood bedroom, the creaminess of my first uni sushi, or the slow up-and-down pulse of the Mediterranean Sea where I floated on my back alongside my kiddos that summer that we went adventuring in Italy together. Those memories are all treasures.

Thus, this year what I would most like for my birthday is to assemble a book of memories contributed by friends who have known me at every awkward and awesome stage of my life. These memories might be a photo of us, a passage of an old letter I wrote to you, or the re-telling of a funny happening that I have probably since forgotten. It might be the story of how we met or the story of how we lost touch. Or it might just be a few adjectives that come to mind when you think of me. 

To that end, would you be willing to take a few moments and share a memory with me?  My plan is to open them all on my birthday and to take a good long time to savor each one. I’ll later assemble them into an album that I can revisit whenever the mood strikes. If you’re willing to contribute, I’ve created an online form that you can use to “share” your memory with me: https://forms.gle/DZsq5nw6AxhVvrsJ9 or I can send you my mailing address if you’d prefer to send it that way–just drop me a line via email, messenger, or text.

xo, Jana