Birthdays are one of those times in the year when self-analysis is inevitable. This seems to be especially true as of me as I get older. I look back at the year since the previous birthday and try to mark out significant things I have done or experienced. Often I'm surprised to find that a lot more has happened than I at first thought.

This year I feel a change in myself, not because of anything specific I have done, but because time has brought these changes about. A certain mellowness has replaced much of the impetuosity that marked my earlier years, although I am still insistent on being right and will defend my opinions with the same stubbornness that I inherited at birth, as some of the articles on this site may attest.

I also find myself thinking about the things I haven't yet done - the places I haven't yet been, the studies I haven't yet finished, the University teaching job I haven't yet got, the book I haven't yet written. But then I think about the things I have done, the places I've worked, the people I've met and taught, the places I've been. I'm celebrating my life and plan to continue doing so.

Yesterday Jia Hui whipped up a day-before-my-birthday candlelit lunch (as today there will friends here) which stunned me, both by it's beauty and its taste. It struck me that she had put so much thought and planning into this surprise. She also gave me a gift, but the lunch surpassed any gift I could have received. It was heartfelt. I felt celebrated.

I'm not famous, or rich, or powerful. But the woman who loves me thinks I'm still worth the effort.

15 September 2002

Dion Marc Delport

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