Today is my birthday. It's been a lovely day, which followed a lovely weekend. I have windowsills lined with cards and a little corner of my living room piled with gifts. I have a gorgeous handmade quilt on my bed that my mother, father and sister lovingly created for me out of memories of my life (specifically, t-shirts). I got to eat at a fun restaurant today and have a wonderful homemade dinner. I even made sure to take care of myself by going to urgent care and getting some medicine for my cold. It has been a just a lovely lovely day.
When I woke up this morning I thought about all the birthdays I've had in my life and all the ways the people around me have celebrated me and I thought about how completely blessed I am. I remember my mom and dad making my favorite meals. There were always wonderful cakes -- sometimes in the shapes of my favorite things (The General Lee!) or from my favorite things (strawberries!). I remember big gatherings of family and friends. Gifts and love and laughter. There's the birthstone ring I still wear every day that I got on my sixteenth birthday from my parents and my grandmother. There's the day I wore the crazy western style earrings from my grandma and grandpa for my drivers' license picture. I had birthday parties - surprise and planned. One year everyone at the Wesley Foundation in Kalamazoo created a dance club for me complete with rented lights. Just for me.
There were meals at Bill Knapp's with roommates, there were mornings I'd wake up wishing for snow (in Michigan in October it is not out of the realm of possibility). I remember one particular year it snowed on our way to Ponderosa for dinner! There were hayrides. There were nights out at the bar. There were new friends and old friends and in Arizona, there were students who brought cards and gifts. I remember my thirtieth at the Bellagio in Vegas. I remember my twenty-first at church, leading the senior high youth group and them surprising me with a cake.
Amidst all the memories there is, more than anything else, the love I feel, today and always. I am completely astonished, time and time again, by the people in my life -- both new and not so new friends and of course, family -- who continue to make me feel so special. And I am blown away by it.
Today was a good day. Today there were phone calls, video chats, there were presents and cards in the mail, texts and so many Facebook messages. There was so much love. And I will never forget that. Never.
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