A Word about Birthdays

I turned forty-three yesterday, and it was very confusing because forty-three is such an odd number.

It's not a watershed birthday; it's not a hallmark birthday; it's not a turning point or anything. It's sort of an ordinary birthday (if any birthday can be said to be ordinary).

Birthdays haven't meant much to me since my early twenties, insofar as a day to celebrate anything. We all get "born". It's not that big a deal to have been born, at least as far as differentiating one person from another. It sometimes serves as a reminder that we should be thankful for the people in our lives, I suppose. It gives others a reason to shower love and honor and gifts on our heads. It's fun to have an excuse for a party, to share good times with good friends. But as far as being significant or meaningful...

My family knows just how to celebrate my birthday. Low-key. Maybe some cupcakes with a little candle. Maybe a small gift or two. Drawings and cards from the kids. Cards from the family. Just a little bit of fun in an otherwise ordinary day.

I stayed home for my birthday so that it could be spent with the family, with my lovely wife and irrepressible children. We went through our usual routine of homeschool (third day running!) and snack-time and game-playing and lunchtime and nap time and going down to the pool to hang out and splash around, then a nice dinner and movie (from the Pink Panther collection) and a reading from Harry Potter and reading emails and surfing the net - and then it was all over.

It was a very nice day.

The best days are those spent with my family. If I were to die tomorrow, it would all have been worth it because my children give me hugs every morning when they get up, and my wife kisses me every morning as she's heading for the coffee pot, and even when things don't go the way we would like and kids are fussy and parents are cranky and we don't like each other very much, we always remind each other that we love each other, because we are family.

And even though most days I have to run off to work just when things are starting to get interesting, and I miss the majority of the day, there is nothing in the world to which I aspire more than to walk through the door at the end of the workday and hug my children again, and give a kiss to my lovely wife one more time, and be with them for a few more hours.

And even if I never accomplish anything else the rest of my life, even if all the dreams in my head never come true, it will all have been worth it because I have a family, and we love each other, and we take care of each other, and we worry about each other, and we pray for each other, and we help each other to be better than we could ever be alone.

Perhaps that's the best thing about having a birthday, is just to remind me that I've had another wonderful year to spend with my family, to give me a day to reminisce over all the memories we've shared over the last three hundred and sixty-five days, and to give thanks to God for the opportunity to be here with them.

Thank you, Lord, for my loving family.