Today, on my 53rd birthday, I feel grateful for life and my life...

My little sister died, when I was 5 years old, of cancer so, as I was growing up, I thought there might be a good chance I would I die early, too. Later, I lost several good friends to AIDS and felt that I, too, might get infected and die. But that didn't happen.

Today, at 53, I celebrate life and the wonderful things in it now more than ever.  My relationships with family and friends are most important to me, followed by good health, meaningful work, LGBT activism, exercise, and lots of movies and books.  I am fortunate to be alive, happy, and healthy, contributing in whatever ways I can to society and those people and things that I love.

BTW, a friend sent them this awesome birthday video: