36 years ago today, your mother lay in a hospital bed staring out the window at the Chowan River. She was 36 years old. She had three older children, one of them 15 and rebellious. She had a 5 year who wanted a baby sister and instead got a brother. She had a 10 year old who had no time for babies, only time for riding bikes.

And she had you, a ball of energy from the start, a head full of dark blonde curls, and brown eyes that twinkled.

Now she is 72, a happy grandmother to 7, a woman with a more active social calendar than Lindsay Lohan and who wears the same perfume she did when you were a child.

You are a grown up, with a head full of dark brown curls, brown eyes that twinkle, and a line on your forehead that comes from too much worry and not enough vacation. My friend at The Daily Snark wonders what life it too short for, and I took the liberty of answering that for you.

Life is too short to…

…Let your bank account determine your station in life.

…Watch others get what they want and not grab some for yourself.

…Let your wife erase “Good Times” from the DVR.

…Spend your days off clipping hedges.

…Worry about what you can’t change.

…Not change the things you can.

…Let other people get away with things they shouldn’t.

…Not pick your battles.

…Take birthdays for granted, even 36^th ones.