60 years? …

I would like to thanks all the wonderful people that sent me wonderful wishes for my birthday from all around the world. Bless you…60 YEARS ALIVE!Well, 60 years and 6 days today, if we follow the calendar, though I don’t believe in calendars.. So many thoughts in my head…don’t know where to start…so I will start with a secret I always kept for myself, and hope will help at least someone in these difficult times that we are all going through.It has been 20 years since I celebrated my birthday. You see, most of you might not know, but I don’t have a family. My mother and my father passed away, I have only one brother that we are no longer in contact since a long time because we have a totally different view of what life is. I guess it happens in many families. So besides my wonderful son Daniel, I don’t have a real family. Wonderful cousins and nephews and nieces, which I love, but we mostly connect by whatsup because of the geographical distance.So the night before my birthday, I went to a secluded place in front of the ocean that I love, and stayed there for a while, thinking. I wasn’t sad or happy, just that melancholy of feeling a little lonely. It’s a mystical place, filled with energy. Nature at its best. I call it “The Rocks.” There was no one, hundreds of stars illuminated the night, and the sound of the waves crushing with the rocks took me to that place where I can feel the voice of my heart and the Voice of the sea. And suddenly, from nowhere, I asked myself: What is a family? A group of people with the same last name and the same blood? I don’t think so, because the most important ingredient for a family is love. That’s what truly makes a family bond, everyone taking care of each other, in the good and bad times, gathering together, celebrating life. Loving each other. And then it hit me from nowhere. Maybe I lost my blood family, but now I know I have a wonderful family: YOU. My readers that send me so amazing messages of how their lives changed after reading something written by a humble dreamer, all the friends I have made around the world, my friends from my childhood, and many more. So I understood that I have a wonderful family, maybe a bit different, but a real family filled with love. I don’t feel alone anymore, because I know that at some moment, someone from any corner of the world is thinking about me. And that’s the best gift I can receive. Knowing that at least, for some, I made a difference for the better, entering into their lives and becoming part of their family. I will never feel alone again, thanks to YOU, wherever you are. I have been blessed. And I am surrounded by love. And now, looking back to my life, I can only smile, because I have lived to the fullest. The good and the bad. I am blessed to still feel like a 15 year old guy, no matter what the calendar says. And I know for sure that the best is yet to come. I left “The Rocks,” and went back home. It was midnight. Suddenly the phone rings. It´s my son Daniel. I cannot ask for more. And the next day, my wonderful angel made of my birthday a wonderful day. And on top of that, I had an amazing surfing session until the sun set in the horizon. What a beautiful day!After 20 years, I celebrated once more my birthday, thanks to YOU. The calls, the beautiful messages full of love, my son and an angel… I have the biggest family in the world. I have been blessed…60 years? Says who, the calendar? not in a lifetime…a dreamer…