My birthday: Number 6 7

When this is your 67th birthday during a year when the number 67 is significant—at least for middle schoolers—it makes you wonder.

My 66th year was one of decreasing mobility and ultimately a diagnosis of metastasized breast cancer that has spread to my bones.

Birthdays make me think of mortality. So this one especially does.

This is the first one that makes me wonder if I'll be on this side of the veil to celebrate the next one.

And the answer might be 67. If six seven means something indeterminate, then it's the right answer.

Because who knows?

And honestly, that's always the answer. None of us knows if we'll be alive in a year.

We are all going to die, even though we pretend we're not. Heck, we're even afraid to say the words "die" and "death." We say "passed away" or "passed on" or—just as I did above—we talk about a veil.

None of us honestly knows what's on the other side of life.

That's always been the scary part of anything for me. The unknown.

But I'm more comfortable with the idea of death and dying than I ever have been. Not that I don't get scared.

I do.

But being aware that this life ends helps refine what is important to me.

I began consciously refining with a daily centering prayer practice in the year 2000. Sitting in silence for 20 minutes every day was a helpful process. I continued that daily practice for 17 years, until I had double knee replacement, and that practice just went away.

Now medical challenges continue the refining. Breast cancer, a different type, came three years ago. Then the next year I had to have one of my knee replacements redone because it had gone wonky. And then this past year I gradually lost mobility. And then I discovered that the second type of breast cancer has spread to several places in my bones.

I've already done a lot of refining. So this diagnosis isn't hitting me as hard as my first breast cancer journey did in 2011 and 2012.

I know that I will die. Sometime.

I don't know when. But I know that this life has an ending point.

Many people have a bucket list of things they want to do before they die, before they kick the bucket.

I don't.

I just hope to appreciate daily life. To find beauty and joy all around me. In everyday things. In special things. I'd say in all things, but I don't think that's realistic. I do have painful days, grouchy days, sad days. That's when it's harder to find joy and beauty.

But I keep looking.

I am also very grateful. I've had a blessed life in so many ways. I still have a blessed life.

I had a solid foundation growing up. I never doubted that I was loved. And now that love continues. My sister comes to take care of me when I need her. Her husband supports her in that. I have lots of friends, folks who are helpful and generous in myriad ways. I have a good medical team, kind and caring doctors and medical staff who help ease my journey. I have so much that is positive in my life.

So on this birthday I have a lot of gratitude. I have found so much joy and beauty over the years.

I will continue to look for joy and beauty. And to be grateful.

Today I celebrate my 67th birthday. My sister and brother-in-law drove up yesterday. A longtime friend made this cake in the photo above for my birthday, so I'll have cake. I'll probably spend most of the day in my recliner nursing the fractured ribs I discovered I have. I'll watch college football and root for UGA, thinking of my years there back in the early 1980s and be grateful for the runs then and now when the football team was and now is really good.

There are so many things both large and small that can make me feel happy.

Sometimes it's gratitude for ginger ale when I'm nauseated. Sometimes it's one of my cats purring in my lap. Sometimes it's delivery services that bring what I need right to my front door. Sometimes it's a box of old photos that transport me to when I was in my 40s traveling to Ireland or Scotland or Belize or California or Colorado. Sometimes it's an adjustable bed that helps me find a comfortable position for sleep.

I can go on and on.

Right now I'm grateful for my laptop and a blog site that lets me share these thoughts on the morning of my 67th birthday.

The birthday that's also the Word of the Year in Dictionary.com. I'll end with their choice of this word and the explanation. Maybe you can give me an insight as to what this 67 year might mean for me!

Each year, Dictionary.com’s Word of the Year and short-listed nominees capture pivotal moments in language and culture. These words serve as a linguistic time capsule, reflecting social trends and global events that defined the year. The Word of the Year isn’t just about popular usage; it reveals the stories we tell about ourselves and how we’ve changed over the year. And for these reasons, Dictionary.com’s 2025 Word of the Year is 67.

If you’re the parent of a school-aged child, you might be feeling a familiar vexation at the sight of these two formerly innocuous numerals. If you’re a member of Gen Alpha, however, maybe you’re smirking at the thought of adults once again struggling to make sense of your notoriously slippery slang. And if it’s a surprise to you that 67 (pronounced “six-seven”) is somehow newsworthy, don’t worry, because we’re all still trying to figure out exactly what it means.

Why Did We Choose 67 as the Word of the Year?

To select the 2025 Word of the Year, our lexicographers analyzed a large amount of data including newsworthy headlines, trends on social media, search engine results, and more to identify words that made an impact on our conversations, online and in the real world.

Searches for 67 experienced a dramatic rise beginning in the summer of 2025. Since June, those searches have increased more than sixfold, and so far the surge shows no signs of stopping. Most other two-digit numbers had no meaningful trend over that period, implying that there is something special about 67.

The origin of this most modern use of 67 is thought to be a song called “Doot Doot (6 7)” by Skrilla. (This is an opportune moment to mention that you may also see it written as 6 7, 6-7, or six-seven, but the most important thing is to never pronounce it as “sixty-seven.”) It was quickly reinforced by viral TikToks featuring basketball players and a young boy who will forevermore be known as the “67 Kid.” Within weeks, teachers were trading tips online about how to get their students to stop saying 67 all day long.

And now for the moment adults around the world have been waiting for: What does 67 mean? Well…it’s complicated. Some say it means “so-so,” or “maybe this, maybe that,” especially when paired with its signature hand gesture where both palms face up and move alternately up and down. Some youngsters, sensing an opportunity to reliably frustrate their elders, will use it to stand in for a reply to just about any question. (“Hello, darling child, how was school today?” “67!”) A perfectly timed 67signals that you’re part of an in-group, and if you’re already using its emerging spinoffs six-sendy and 41, you might be even cooler.

Perhaps the most defining feature of 67 is that it’s impossible to define. It’s meaningless, ubiquitous, and nonsensical. In other words, it has all the hallmarks of brainrot. It’s the logical endpoint of being perpetually online, scrolling endlessly, consuming content fed to users by algorithms trained by other algorithms. And what are we left with in the wake of this relentless sensory overload? 67. Still, it remains meaningful to the people who use it because of the connection it fosters. 67 shows the speed at which a new word can rocket around the world as a rising generation enters the global conversation.

https://www.dictionary.com/e/word-of-the-year-2025/