Today I turn 41 years young. It has taken me many years to forgive my parents for giving me a birthday so close to Christmas (really – what WERE they thinking back in March 1967? No – don’t answer that one – this IS my parents we’re talking about… ) – but now I’m quite reconciled to it, especially now that, thanks to the power of the internet, it no longer matters that there is nobody around to celebrate my birthday with me because they’ve all gone home to their parents for Christmas. In the e-world that I largely inhabit, we can party online. A huge thank you to everybody who has written to wish me a happy birthday – thanks to you, it has been!

I’ve had birthday e-cards, birthday wishes on my Facebook Wall (41 at the last count – one for every year of my life – and rising…), birthday Tweets, and some wonderful gifts too. Such as:

- Marcus Eriksen of the JUNK, made a gift of the $500 manual watermaker they loaned me several hundred miles east of Hawaii after I ran out of water

- my good friend and social media guru Ellen Leanse sponsored some Kiva micro-loans in my name – as a birthday gift that keeps on giving. She wrote, “I’ve used Kiva.org to help find two start-up businesses in the Pacific Islands and fund them with micro-loans. Both of the businesses are farms; I tried to find businesses as low on the production chain as possible in keeping with your vision for the environment.”

- Podcast Sister Anna Farmery sending me some fantastic quotes about growing older, errr, more mature – which I’d like to share with you here…

The best birthdays of all are those that haven’t arrived yet.
- Robert Orben

Old age isn’t so bad when you consider the alternative.
- Maurice Chevalier

I’m at an age when my back goes out more than I do.
- Phyllis Diller

You are only young once, but you can be immature for a lifetime.
- John P. Grier

If I’d known I was going to live this long (100 years),
I’d have taken better care of myself.
- Ubie Blake

Age is a high price to pay for maturity.
- Tom Stoppard

And finally, for a big smile, major wanderlust, and some rather dodgy dancing, please check out this seriously feel-good video.

Well, folks, it’s goodbye from the birthday girl. I’m off on a Gaia retreat for the next 6 days, and laptops and mobile phones are strongly discouraged. How will I survive?! There may have to be the occasional Tweet sneaking its way out under the barricades….

But just in case – HAPPY HOLIDAYS/CHRISTMAS/WHATEVER MAKES YOU HAPPY! And I’ll be back on Dec 30th. Hasta luego….