But, this was MY birthday, and shouldn't I be allowed to set the agenda? My whole life, I have watched people celebrate birthdays. From parents, to siblings, to friends, to extended family, and after witnessing many of these birthdays, I have come to recognize one common theme. You must socialize!
What if you woke up on the day of your birthday and felt no particular need to communicate with the outside world? It should be your right, on this holiest of days, to be able to do that. Now, it would be a very sad birthday if this happened to you by no choice of your own. I mean, if people literally forgot your birthday! But, if you chose not to check your phone messages, the mail, or social media, you might actually be able to get through the entire day without 1 person wishing you a Happy Birthday.
So, the thought of the day is: What is the point of a birthday, really? We go to great lengths to make a day special for someone. We take them out for dinner (if you are not in lockdown) and look for great gifts to make them happy (hopefully, bought online), and we blow out candles and eat cake. Masks have been removed for this portion of the party.
All to celebrate you being brought into this world. Sure, it has a great essence. Without you being in this world, you wouldn't have great friends, a family who loves you, and even progeny who may or may not acknowledge your special day. But, if the day goes by without celebration, we would survive, right?
Let me give you an example of the biggest birthday party I can remember. When my brother turned 1, a hall was rented and a hundred people were there, eating, laughing, socializing. There were presents. There were kids. But, here was my brother, sitting in his high chair, completely oblivious to the fact that that all these people were there to celebrate him. Now, I had a similar party for my son when he turned 1 and the details of both parties might be getting blurred, but you get the idea. We make a big deal about a child turning one. We dress up in fancy clothes. We blow up balloons. We shove cake in our faces. To what end?
As we got older, the desire for presents never ended. We invited classmates and childhood friends and we would play for a few hours. If you had a party at your house, you might remember that feeling when the cool kids came over and played with your toys. For some kids, the party was just about the presents. Some of the smarter/spoiled kids figured out that the more kids you invited, the more presents you got! For me, I was just excited to have someone other than my best friend over to my house.
I know that on the days of my birthday party, the excitement was overwhelming for me. I was walking on a cloud the whole time, wondering if it was a dream that all these kids came to MY house to play on MY birthday. I remember feeling in a daze, like it was all a dream, a fantasy - made real. For one day out of the year, I was the popular kid!
So maybe, birthdays are still a big deal for me, even now at 43. Not because I want to invite friends over to my house during COVID, but that, I want to feel as special as those kids used to make me feel when I was 10. Don't get me wrong. I have had many good birthdays as an adult. However, what I am trying to get at is that you only get 1 day a year, right? Your ME day! Why not find out what is going to make that day truly special for you and then make it happen - COVID or not.
This year, I had to share my birthday with Jesus. Easter has not fallen on my birthday in half a decade but it was always a race with me and Jesus. This year, we finally tied again. My son, correlating Easter with presents, was primarily concerned with when he would get to open HIS presents. Meanwhile, I was balancing a good Easter with my son and a special day for myself. Considering that I was blessed with a beautiful sunny day on my birthday, I came up with a compromise - church and then the beach. Neither plan went off successfully. I am still kicking myself thinking, another birthday gone by that I could not make special for myself. Another year lost and forgotten. Am I destined to only remember those childhood birthdays fondly? Someone once told me that birthdays are just for kids, not adults. I refuse to believe that. If a birthday is not a celebration of you being born on that day, then I will have to put in on my shelf of sham holidays. So far, I only have Victoria Day and Civic Holidays sitting there, so please don't make me throw birthdays in with those two!
Without going into details of how many birthdays gone bad I have had, I just wanted to express the importance of making your day special for you. No one else is going to do that for you. As a big promoter of birthdays, I do try to make birthdays special for those around me. However, COVID has made it hard to celebrate with the ones I love. So, I will say it again: Find out what will make your day special, and then go and do it (within reason). You may have to abandon your family for a couple hours, if they are neighsayers, like mine. You may have to go outside your comfort zone. You may have to break free of the mould you have been living in for the last 364 days, but it is your day. Go do it!
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