“Birthdays are so important.”

My birthday started last night at 11:58pm with THE conference call. It’s our thing. I don’t remember whose birthday it started with and I think I probably missed the first one because I lived on campus in my first year of college and we had ridiculous rules, one of them being that we had to hand in our phones at 10:30pm. Yeah.

Anyway so THE conference call is like our tradition. It might have been a surprise the first time but it’s not anymore – we all know it’s going to happen but we still don’t ever talk about it in front of or with the birthday girl because we’re all still pretending like it is a big surprise. I love it. It’s also totally chaotic. Everyone breaks into song (totally off-tune) intermittently, conversation spurries off into random directions and then someone says, “HAPPY BIRTHDAY [insert nickname of birthday girl]” and attention is once again drawn to the ‘agenda’ of the conference call. It’s hilarious. You’d think after 4 or 5 years of practice, it would be a little more organised but the chaos is the fun of it. The chaos is somehow comforting.

So that’s how my birthday started just before midnight.

And then I went to bed, happy having talked to my college-buddies, to be home, sleeping in my own bed in my room on my birthday after 11 years and also happy knowing that God loves me. Just before the phone-call, I had opened my Bible and read from Joshua but not really taking in anything… I’ve been drifting lately. Not wanting to talk to God or hear what he has to say so I was expecting nothing but condemnation or silent-treatment at best but instead I found mercy, faithfulness, unrelenting, incomprehensible, wooing love. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go…

I woke up in the morning to tight hugs and kisses from my parents, and my granny, ate crepes with pumpkin butter and strawberries (oh my god. so good!) and then just before I left, I decided to see what Henri Nouwen (Bread for the Journey) had to say to me on this day so I open to Feb 13 and guess what the first line was? Birthdays are so important. I’m not kidding. The theme of the reading was celebrating birthdays ON my birthday. Is that awesome or is that awesome!?! I have to say I felt pretty special. You can call it a coincidence if you want but as far as I’m concerned – it was planted there… For me :)

Here’s a little excerpt from the reading:

Birthdays keep us childlike. They remind us that what is important is not what we do or accomplish, not what we have or who we know, but that we are, here and now. On birthdays let us be grateful for the gift of life.

So today, as I begin another year of my life I am grateful for it.

And even more grateful for the Giver of life. My God, my hero.

And for all of YOU! Thanks for the love!