•• Thank you for those who have already sent me so many beautiful birthday wishes. It’s strange to have your birthday on 9-11. I always loved having a party and celebrating my birthday but that all changed in 2001. My little boy asked why and how and all the questions so many children asked on that day. I remember telling him that more people helped and more people prayed on that day than ever before in history. The good was far more powerful than hate could ever be.

The next year, my little Jack was starting 2nd. grade. He wanted me to celebrate my birthday cause I’d missed it the year before and I told him it wasn’t really a day to have fun for my own sake. When he came home from school, he had a backpack full of birthday greetings made by all the kids in his class for “Jacks Mom”. He said “Mama, that was only one day. Today is your birthday and it should be happy. I love you.” I read each card from these little children and wept. Their innocent love touched my heart and I felt it was ok to have a birthday, honor my Mother and Father and blow out the candles.

I will always honor this day and what happened to all of us all over the world because we changed. But this many years later, even when I feel somewhat frivolous, I will always be grateful for my family who’ve taught me and loved me so well and to my beautiful son who continues to remind me to celebrate my birthday. Today I remember.

Here’s to the best year ever. I’m pretty sure it will be a year full of Joy!

V mad

•• Virginia Madsen is set to join the cast of the second season of AMC’s period Western “Hell On Wheels” in a three-episode arc, playing Mrs. Hannah Durant, wife of Thomas “Doc” Durant (Colm Meaney).

Virginia Madsen wrote a blog entry for The Daily Love: “Sometimes we find ourselves depressed, stressed or discouraged – stuck in a dark place that seems impossible to escape, almost reflecting the last grey of winter before the seasonal changes that signal the dawn of springtime. It may be the simple everyday problems that build up over time or it can be something much larger and more serious that buries us in spirit. I believe negative energy is like stagnant air that needs but a window opened to shake it all out. Changing the energy within ourselves can affect the outward energy around us.

Try something new to excite, or wake up your inner self. Try yoga, cycling or raising your heart rate with a simple walk around the block. With simple “baby steps” we can transform our own energy. By doing so we create momentum that can affect ourselves, and those around us. I think of this as a kind of “spring cleaning” of the body mind and spirit. Think of a summer vacation house, locked up and closed for the winter, being opened and cleaned out. How transformed the summer house becomes with the windows open and the cobwebs swept out. We too can spring clean ourselves and prepare for the seasonal changes that will renew our lives.

Open your doors and windows, dust things off and shed your winter blues. The time is now. Spring has sprung. Prepare to embrace the sun and start anew.

You may be surprised at what blooms within you.”
Love,
Virginia