Luck has Nothing to Do with Birthdays

Last night, I was looking up from my chair.  The white string tied to the right arm of my chair lead up the way to find a balloon wafting in the cross breeze of the air.  The bottom of the balloon is surrounded by bright colors leading up to a colorful "Happy Birthday!" topped off by a candle.  I found this balloon, along with a card and a gift on my desk Monday morning.  It was from a close colleague of mine, one with whom I have worked since day one.

Like the balloon I have!

As I looked to the underbelly of the balloon, I began to think about meaning of all the traditions in birthdays. While driving home, these thoughts turned to the origins of the celebration.  I thought about how families traditionally worked.  When most of the country was still being settled, even in the rural areas of Europe or other nations, having a large family was imperative to running the farm.  There were animals to feed, crops to care for and good to sell.  Childbirth carried dangers to the mother, a woman who was crucial to the raising of the children.  Death was prominent in a world where medicine consisted of bleeding or balancing the Four Humors.

Having children was, while important, not a luxury either.  All the girls needed dowries to marry appropriately, money or gifts to offer their future husbands.  All the goods (woman included) were given to the husband to become his property (thus the changing of the last name).  There were more mouths to feed in the home, availability of food depending on the success of the crop and how well it did at market.  Many famines occurred.

On the drive home, I thought about how when my family came to celebrate my birthday.  How my mom embraced me, wishing me a happy birthday "to my eldest girl!  Happiest day in my life!"  I am being celebrated when really, it is she who should be celebrated.  Mothers get one day to have all they do celebrated when really it should be celebrated everyday, including on a child's birthday.  We are very fortunate in this day and age to have the luxury to celebrate the birth of a child.  In the past, it was out of necessity and motherly/wifely duty that children were born into a marriage.  Now, having children is something that can be almost predetermined (if you include the availability of birth control).

Every birthday is a gift in life.  Many won't see as many birthdays as you or I might see.  The world is quick to take gifts like life away from us.  It seems as though every medical advance we have made is met by an improvement on the part of illness.  We are seeing more and more "superbugs" that medicine is constantly trying to keep up with.  But for now, let's celebrate the world and the day as it comes.  I have had my breakfast and enjoying my second cup of coffee.  My morning is about halfway completed.  Our little dog is chasing after flies and all I can think of is how blessed I am to be a quarter of a century old and enjoying the world I am in.

Birthday Wishes on Butterfly Wings

What has happened to me??  I know, I have been MIA for several days.  It has been a crazy few days, too!

My blooming tulips

Friday, we got my fiance's son for the weekend.  I got home around 7 and immediately went to making dinner and talking and entertaining the five year old.  He is very sweet but was a complete handful this weekend!  The most difficult ever!

Saturday, all three of us went to where my fiance graduated from high school with his sister and her two daughters.  All six of us were invincible, conquering arguments and hiking around a festival, saying "no" and "yes," backing each other up all the way.  We went to lunch shortly thereafter and then, visiting other family members.  We got back late that night and we all went straight to bed.

Cards and rhubarb tart!

Yesterday, Sunday, was my birthday!  Quarter of a century old, there was a packed day ahead of us.  Unbeknownst to us is exactly how long it would extend.  We took my fiance's son back by noon.  While there, my fiance took a tumble.  His ankle become swollen and he was in pain.  He bit his bottom lip, knowing my family was coming for dinner.  We drove back home (he drove) and he propped his foot up with ice while I did laundry.  My family came and brought strawberry-rhubarb pie (I LOVE rhubarb!  Try cooking with it, it is awesome!), presents and tons of well-wishes.

When we bid them adieu (much to our puppy's displeasure), Ryan admitted to me that he was in a lot of pain.  He asked to be taken to the Emergency Room.  What else was I to do but oblige?  I drove him to the hospital, helped him into the waiting room, where we awaited Triage and a bed.  His blood pressure was sky high as well as his pain tolerance.  When we finally got a bed, I helped to take his shoe off.

The doctor walked in.  He kind of stooped a little when he walked, had a beard and tired eyes.  He expressed he was already on his 6th cup of coffee and there since Friday.  Probably working a 72-hour, I told my fiance.  The doctor joked with us, trying to be good natured and make light of the situation.  Once my fiance got back from X-ray, he expressed that he was becoming annoyed by the jokes.  I also had been joking with him.  This launched us into a conversation about making light of the scenario.

I admire those men and women who work in a field such as medicine or law enforcement or any of the fields that are very serious and grave situations.  I can appreciate someone trying to have a sense of humor in the setting as well.  I love to joke when I am not feeling well.  I would rather bring smiles to a room and make myself feel better, than sit in silence while a busy room passes around me.  If I am not smiling in a situation like that, I feel as though everyone else is going at the speed of light and I am left behind.  I try and bring my fiance a smile every day, my family a smile every chance I can.  I try to smile every chance I can as well.

The butterfly

Friday night when I got home, I was welcomed with a kiss and two hugs, a bouquet of mixed-color tulips and a butterfly necklace.  Now, I stand in my kitchen and the tulips are blooming and perfuming the room.  My birthday wishes still linger in the air, the last bars from "Happy Birthday" echo in the apartment.  I saw my fiance off in his air cast and crutches, teaching him as much as I learned when I was on crutches a few years ago.  Sitting here now, enjoying some corn muffins and coffee before work, I reflect on the reasoning I was given the butterfly necklace by my fiance.

"It is said that when a dream is coming true, someone will see a butterfly crossing their path.  Well, honey, you are my dream come true."