If your birthday gets you down, just remembver that you have 364 unbirthdays before your next one! Maybe it's how old you are. Somewhere around my mid 50's, I started to accept that I was about as good as I was going to get. And heaved a great sigh of relief! I stopped setting goals, and just tried to enjoy each day as much as I could, and do what I could to make life a little better for those around me. Maybe that's when I finally stopped looking inward (so critically) and started looking outward. For the last few years, my birthday (in my mind) has become a non-event.) I laugh with my oldest son who considers birthdays a responsibility... it is important that he have as good a birthday as everyone wants him to have. He doesn't say that negatively... he's just wise enough to recognize that there is no one day that we have to be REAL Happy. And he has a good life... a loving wife and two great kids, and enjoys his days. No sense having to kick it up a notch.

Depression is a hard thing to handle. I know from experience. The hardest thing about it is that your worst critic is yourself. It doesn't seem to make any difference if you're pleasing others. You never seem to please yourself. Maybe on your birthday you should play Ricky Nelson's Garden Party and sing along on the chorus:

"You can't please everyone, so you got to please yourself." :-)

Jerry