My Birthday Suit & Wishes

Blooming at 69.

Today is my birthday. I’m 69, and I’m in full bloom.

From my visit to the country market. Thanks Next Gen Flowers.

I don’t usually share my birthday. I quietly celebrate. This year, on Friday evening, with a few besties, paint by numbers, and beautiful conversation. Yesterday, breakfast with my family and a visit to a country farmer’s market. Today, dinner with my family, and I can’t forget the grand dogs and cats. Tomorrow, a very dear childhood friend is treating me to lunch. And greetings as I write this from Dublin and New York. I’m feeling so very special.

This morning I sat with why I don’t usually share. Something shifted. It’s my time. Time to claim who I am becoming. Witnessing myself as others see me. Ready to say out loud. Look what I built. Look what I’ve become.

In July, I’ll be holding an open house in The Hummingbird Nest, my newly remodelled virtual retreat center. The theme is In Full Bloom. The timing feels perfect.

My Birthday Suit

I have a gallery wall in my bathroom. A legacy wall, with the matriarch of our family at the top - that’s my mom in a wash basin. A wall in full display of us in our birthday suits.

You might ask, who decorates their bathroom with photos of their mom and themselves in their birthday suits?

Someone who knows where she comes from. A long line of women who valued connection and creativity. And joy. Look at me in that middle photo. Pure, in the moment, joy.

Wishes

We make wishes in so many ways.

A wishbone snapped between two people. This is my husband’s tradition. Everyone receives three wishes.

Stones thrown into water with your besties. A friendship tradition that continues to live on.

Of course, making a wish while blowing out candles on a birthday cake.

And writing wishes on paper, rolling them up, sending them into the heavens, and trusting.

It’s so fun to see that my wishes are coming true.

The Hummingbird Nest is real. I built it. And today, on my birthday, I can feel my becoming.

Come with me. There is more to come. An open house. A nest full of women finding their own bloom. I’ll share details soon.

For now, just know. I’m 69, I’m not in my birthday suit, just sweats and a hoodie (sorry Mom, I’m not dressed up as you’d wish I were), and I’m becoming.

Happy birthday to me.

Warmly,
Kathy xo

A little about me

Hi, I’m Kathy. A guide, a gatherer, a maker of sacred space, and a woman who found her way home to herself after years of putting everyone else first.

For years, I wore many hats at once. Single parent, community manager in a role I was promoted into before I believed I deserved it, event organizer. And later, a family caregiver. Learning all over again how to give without losing yourself in the giving. Caring for everyone, in every direction, all at the same time. What I had to learn, slowly and imperfectly, was that I mattered too. What I found on the other side of that, through stillness, creativity, and the women who gathered around my table, became everything I now offer.

There’s a place at the table with your name on it.