Aunt Jo, who lived to the ripe old age of 97 used to journal... alot! She would use spiral bound notebooks that you could buy at the corner drug store. She had multitudes of them. And each page began with "I was born on May 6, 1893, and my Father from in his Diary "Day of Days"! We always had a good chuckle about that, bless her heart. Her birthday, clearly was very important to her. And rightly so! My family has always made a big deal about birthdays.... a birthday is a person's unique day where they can celebrate and be celebrated. After moving away from home, we could always count on the phone ringing at midnight. It would be my Mom calling. She wanted to be the first one to say happy birthday.
However this year, the phone was silent. Mother is still able to make calls but she has a broken leg, and has been pretty heavily medicated to keep the pain away. And while I certainly understood why she didn't or couldn't call, it still made me sad. So I went to bed feeling a bit melancholy, and more than a little sorry for myself. Silly I know. I wrote in my journal yesterday:
My birthday... lots of expectations... lots of doubts. Lord, I pray to you for help with this. For some reason, I always have unattainable expectations on this day, and am always disappointed. I know in my heart that this is nobody’s fault but my own. Help me Lord, to appreciate the many blessings I have and to find joy and celebration in them. Amen.
And as it turned out, as I should have known, my prayers were answered. I had a truly wonderful day! Thank you Lord! I truly am very blessed to have good friends, loving family and caring co-workers.
- Laura, my boss brought in flowers, a lovely cake and sand-tarts... she said that a little birdie, who I knew was my former boss Alan, had told her that they were my favorites.
- Barbara my cousin took me out to lunch to the Sidebar in the Oregon District and we had an awesome lunch. She gave me a gift of a necklace she made for me and a lovely beaded flower. This was truly unexpected (the gift) and I will cherish them.
- Russell, knowing that I was out to lunch with Barbara, stopped by and left a pot of violet colored hyacinths on my desk, with a little note that said "Happy Birthday Dork, Love Harley"! That was very unexpected, and of course I cried.
- Alan, my old boss stopped by with a card, chocolates and tickets to the Dayton Philharmonic Designers Showhouse!
- Emails, cards and hundreds of messages from friends around the globe filled my mailboxes at home, work and on Facebook. That was an incredible feeling.
- Dinner last night with Russell, Lilli, Phil and Logan was a blast. Lots of laughter and good times. We ate at EO (Extra Ordinary Burger) at the Greene.
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