Oct 3, 2023
It's my 30th birthday, and it feels like I haven't sensed the flow of the world's magic against my fingertips in so long. It's as though I've been dehydrated, with days and seconds stripped from me with great malice. Yet, here I am, once again swimming in the ocean of old magic, as if someone had finally turned on the faucet. I've come a long way from the little boy in South America. In these 30 years, I've traveled and found homes along the way. From the shores of Kittery, Maine, to the cobblestone streets of Ibarra, Ecuador, and to a volcanic mountain in the middle of the Pacific on the Big Island of Hawaii. My feet have carried me to even more places than I could have imagined. I've visited so many friends, broken bread with memories, and cried with the ghosts of long-lost shadows. I've experienced my fair share of grief, love, and survival. I've raised a toast to all the gods in the heavens and prayed to some questionable entities for freedom from pain. I've shared laughter with demons, devils, and lonely angels. I've spun the world on my fingertip and dreamt of warp-speed travel while intoxicated. If you know me, can you feel how much it means to be me? How I overflow with life and the will to live? Can you see it in my eyes, the way I smile at all the glory, sadness, and everything in between? I am just a piece of a whole, a wizard of the universe, a boy with a smirk. I've worn many shapes and masks, but it's still me beneath it all. I haven't changed, and yet I've changed so much. I've been a trickster, a lover, a fool, a wolf, a son, a guardian, a saint, a devil, and a father. The grand calculus of everything will always equal me, and it will equal you. You are what I used to be, and you will become what I am. May all your birthdays be Fun and Fancy Free.