Happy Birthday JD

Today I celebrate my birthday and today I also celebrate the courage, vision and love that my parents had that took them from the farms of Ireland to America during the Great Depression to eventually give me a great life and the America Dream.

it's funny how when I was younger I would get depressed on my birthday and eventually I turned it into my one and only Designated Depression Day and finally I decided I didn't need to be depressed for even one day and let that go. Now I see it my birthday more as a Designated Gratitude Day. A day when I can focus on all I am grateful for.

So today I celebrate all I am grateful for and it is a very very long list. Thank you to my family, especially my new Irish family, friends and all those who have touched my life over the years and gave me the gift of your friendship, love, humor, company and contributed to who I am today. It's been a long and interesting journey. You're in my memory and my heart. Thank you.

I got a special package from My Cousin Marie all the way from the mountain of Glanduff Ireland. She sent me a Irish Baseball hat and scarf and birthday card.

My cousin is 65 years old and rides her bike up and down the mountain 1/2 hours each way to get to the town to buy the present and to mail it to me. Truly a gift and some sacrifice from the heart. I can't convey how special a birthday present it is and how it is a symbol of the love that is in my life that I feel so grateful for.

So my birthday today will look like this:

Exercise - The Steps in Santa Monica
Meditating, Journaling and Visioning and for my future @ the Self Realization Gardens in Santa Monica
Create a Vision Board for 2010
Volunteering for a 1/2 day packing care packages @ Operation Gratitude
Working / Writing on my Documentary. TV Series Proposal and my Memoir Book
A special dinner with my family.
And having my cousin Sharon and her family calling me from Germany to sing me a Happy Birthday
Calling my Aunt Maggie and Cousin Marie in Ireland to share my day with them
And receiving Birthday wishes from my family on the East Coast and from all my friends on FB

It doesn't get better than this......

I believe my best years are still ahead of me and I look forward to achieving more, contributing more and living an even more fulfilling life.....

So a toast..... Slainte
I share this day with all my family and friends and say Thank you




John Duffy

Happy 12th Birthday - To My Daughter Sofia

I wrote this for your 11th birthday and it is still true

I still remember the day you were born and I held you in my arms in the hospital. My life changed for ever that day. It was the greatest thing that ever happened to me and it helped me grow, mature and step up in every way. You always tell me I am the greatest dad in the world and those words from you are my greatest success in life and I will always attempt to live up to those words. Every day I say thank you for having you as my daughter and I wish you a Happy Birthday and may all your dreams come true and always know I will always love you.

Happy 12th Birthday

You've grown to be be a confident, competent happy 12 year older. We have shared many magic moments over the years and I look forward to sharing even more with you this year. You have discovered many passions; horseback riding, cheerleading, fashion designing and I'm sure you will discover many more. This year you begin your middle school journey. So Happy Birthday and here's to a great year of adventure, new learnings, growth and new friends. I am blessed to be your dad.

Some Birthday Wishes:

Dream Big, Never Give Up on Your Dreams, Laugh a lot, Let Your Greatness Shine, Make a Difference, Be Happy and Happy 12th Birthday

with all my love,

your Dad

Happy Birthday

Many, many years ago I came up with this strange idea. Okay very strange idea. I was pretty happy and upbeat all of the time and I felt I needed to be depressed at least one day a year. So I decided that my birthday would be that day and it would be my annual designated depression day, DDD for short. For a few years I would feel depressed on my birthday and would focus on all the things that weren't working in my life. I tried to use it create enough pain on that day to motivate myself to change. Well after a few years I got tired of this and started to reduce it to a designated depression hour, then depression minute and finally decided to eliminate this strange idea . As you can imagine I wasn't fun to be around in those days on my birthday.

Now I choose to celebrate my birthday and focus on all the abundance and blessings in my life. I also decided this year to volunteer on my birthday weekend at Operation Gratitude so I can appreciate even more what I have by helping others....