It’s that day again <3

So it’s my birthday and I don’t mind a bit. 

Thankfully as I approached my 50th year and was making all kinds of negative comments about it, God did that thing He does with me and spoke rather succinctly that perhaps since I had two daughters coming along behind me I might want to change my tone and embrace each year as a beautiful gift so that they would not dread getting older in a culture that deifies youth. 

I am so thankful He doesn’t beat around the bush with me because I can be dull and slow to catch on and His way of speaking in brief sentences helps me very much. I began to say I was excited about turning 50 and before long, I actually was excited about it.

While there are times I see my neck and whatever the heck is going on there or the patchwork wrinkles that are forming on the outside of my eyes and I am not a fan of aging; for the most part I am continuing to be postive about my age and thankful for the life I have been given. 

It has its perks, like early shopping hours during Covid and young people no longer treat me like a potential threat because I am an “older lady” so they open doors for me and call me “sweetie” and ask if I need help with carrying my groceries…sigh..whatev

Russ asked me last night if I had any favorite birthday memories and I would have to say all of them. I always loved my birthday and would tell everyone in my sphere of contact when it was coming up or happening so they would remember. I am sitting laughing at myself..but it is so true. 

There were the years he would have the kids make a big deal of it for me and the surprise parties he threw on my 30th and 40th that made me cry. There was the one I asked for on my 60th where we gathered a group of friends who have walked through so much of our adult life together and I was able to tell them how much they mean to me.

I shared a handful of ones from my younger years with him in answer to his question and as in all things he just shook his head at what this brain holds onto in the file cabinets of life lived. 

There was the year my dad set up a movie projector in some garage captured in a black and white photo where a group of little girls sat in their Sunday best on folding chairs watching cartoons played on the wall and munching popcorn.

There was the year in junior high when my mom felt bad that my birthdays were always spent in a travel trailer with people their age so she threw me a slumber party in the fall after a football game. She bought a cake from the bakery that was iced in psychedelic colors and had a plastic record player and records scattered over the top. 

Did I just date myself? If anyone doesn’t know what a record player is it was what we used before 8 tracks…never mind. 

Those travel trailer birthdays were fun, too. One year we had cake in a parking lot somewhere out west with the twenty plus fellow families from around the world as my dad was leading a Caravan America for ambassadors of other countries and their  families. 

There was the year she bought a half a watermelon and stuck a candle in it because I loved watermelon more than cake that summer. I have since recovered and they hold a solid tie in my heart. 

One glorious summer I was staying several weeks with my aunt and uncle in Washington and had real live cousins around my age to celebrate with me. They gifted me an insulated Schlitz mug for drinking my soda as we watched game shows….they all had one and wanted me to be part of the team with my own mug. 

Belonging. 

Isn’t that what we all long for? 

Isn’t that why we celebrate our birthdays with friends and family and why we reach out and send greetings to others we love to say we are glad they were born?

It’s why I made a big fuss over each member of our family on their day and why I go out and hand select gifts and a card for friends on the anniversary of their births. 

We are born into a time and setting for purposes beyond our understanding and we touch the lives of those who travel with us. 

We should celebrate the gift of life given to us and we should celebrate the lives of those around us. Each one is so precious to God. Each one is assigned a time and space and it is sacred. What a marvelous thing that we are surrounded with the people of this time and place, hand picked to be here and to journey alongside others who were also handpicked <3

His breath sustains us. His wisdom guides us. He loves us and in return we love Him and each other. 

Such a gift. 

Such a cause of celebration. 

I hope you have a very happy day wherever you are. Whatever your circumstances are today, you are loved and you are designed for a purpose that is beautiful and specific and holy. 

Thank you for stopping by and sharing this day with me, today and any days you choose to visit. You are a gift to me <3