My birthday comes in just a few days, and since you have one, too, I dedicate this column to you and to me.

I love to use quotes in my columns, so I thought to celebrate the days that you and me were delivered from our mothers’ womb into this world, I’d offer a few here.

William Shakespeare said, “With mirth and laughter, let old wrinkles come.” Birthdays make us old; there’s no getting around it. When those golden years come upon us, prescription bottles line up like soldiers ready to go to war against armies of ailments and diseases. Many pills win battles. Few win wars.

The best medicine does not come with a childproof cap. The best weapon to fire at whatever may ail us is laughter. A small dose of a chuckle here and there goes right to the brain. A loud belly laugh can heal an aching heart.

We have medical drugs for our emotions, so I can see a TV commercial coming one day for Chuckletta, smile-faced laugh tablets that will be prescribed to those diagnosed with no sense of humor. Side effects include uncontrollable laughing in public places and stabbing abdominal pain. Call the doctor right away if you cannot stop laughing for six straight hours or more.

To add to Shakespeare’s humor, actor George Burns, when he turned 100, said, “I was taught to respect my elders, so now I don’t have to respect anybody.” Author Andrew Shaffer wrote, “We do have funerals for the living. They’re called birthday parties.”

Birthdays ignite memories, both good and bad. Author Jessica Khoury wrote, “I imagine myself centuries from now, maybe at my three-hundredth birthday, looking all the way back to my seventeenth. How will I possibly be happy, remembering the light in my mother’s eyes? The swiftness of Uncle Antonio’s steps as he dances? The way my father stands on edge of the courtyard, smiling in that vague, absent way of his?”

We can forget the gifts we get, the cake we eat and that song everyone sings off-key. What we miss are those birthday moments with special people who are no longer with us. How lucky we are to have been blessed with another year of life and treasure those moments forever.

Poet Abhijit Naskar wrote, “The day that you are born, is the day the planet becomes a bit more human — Mother Earth whispers, let there be dawn, from the vacuum of time emerges hope in action; learning to live a little more, by the making of memories, not passing seasons; animals may grow old, humans grow whole — every scar a scripture, every joy a sermon.”

Just for fun, I looked up what it means to be a Gemini since I was born in June. The Farmers’ Almanac says, “If you are a Gemini, then you are the information junkies of the zodiac. You want to know everything that is going on, where it is happening, with whom, and why. You delight in sharing information about your friends and love putting thoughts, ideas, and people together.

“Writing and speaking come naturally to you, and you can be found frequently in the realm of journalism. You bore easily and prefer a job with many different pieces and parts. You will reach for the stars when given a chance. Life, for you, is a dance.

“Geminis like engaging in stimulating conversations; learning new things and expanding knowledge; spending time with friends and loved ones; sharing ideas and experiences; traveling and exploring new places.”

My horoscope defines me most accurately, and if you are of the signs of Aries, Aquarius and Libra, then we would be compatible.

I must share my birth date with International Global Wind Day and United Kingdom’s National Beer Day. I guess that means if I drink enough beer, the wind will knock me over.

We make a big deal out of a child’s birthday, and rightly so. They enjoy the parties, the cakes and especially the gifts. Age matters little to a child; when we were young, we thought our parents were old and our grandparents were ancient.

The day will come, however, when there is not enough room on the cake for the number of candles we need to plant. We look forward to birthdays until we get so old that we don’t have “Happy Birthdays” anymore, we just have “birthdays.” That said we should consider every birthday a privilege.

We’ve all heard that age is just a number, but for me it’s two numbers. My body might be of an old age, but my mind is still stuck somewhere between my 30s and 40s. They are constantly at war with each other. My mind will say you can easily walk 5 miles today, but my body will say, “You’re gonna be hurtin’ when you get to the end of where you’re going.”

We all know where we’ve been and we know where we’re going. Profound words said by author Nicky Gumbel resonate with me about the date we were delivered into this life: “Today is the oldest you have been and the youngest you will ever be again. Make the most of it!”

We celebrate a day and we get gifts from our loved ones, but the best gift of all is the gift of the life we were given that we should cherish every single day.

For today and for all your tomorrows, happy birthdays to you, all!

Email Rich Strack at richiesadie11@gmail.com