I used to think that birthday or especially birthday celebration has little meaning. Perhaps because I have high expectation that birthday has to be special, if not, it is not meaningful. Yesterday was my wife’s grandma’s 82th birthday. Our family organized a birthday celebration for her. Thanks to Pak Theo who prepared the liturgy and the flow of the session, it became a meaningful time for our grandma. I think yesterday may be the first time I saw her tears as she was moved by the whole experience, one by one people gave her good wishes. Usually she is a strong person who seldom exhibits any part of weakness aside from her physical weakness as she grows old.
Another thing that makes me try to tone down my expectation of birthday is that because I cannot accept things becoming like normal. Whereas it seems to be fine with our grandma that things becoming like normal again such as today where the busyness to prepare cake for tomorrow’s order comes. So, it is a different perspective where we can treasure special moments even though we know that it is not like that all the time. In fact, perhaps that is the very reason we need to learn to treasure those moments as they are not easy to get.
One thing to learn is the sincerity. When we are sincere, we can wish other people shortly and yet they are blessed. I often want to give a complex and beautiful wish to people having birthday. But yesterday session taught me that those wishes were ordinary. But they carry special meaning to our grandma.
A quote from yesterday is that birthday is not just the recurrence of our birth date but God’s grace that is poured, the character that is shaped, and the good examples exhibited through our lives.
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