Celebrating Birthdays

I love Birthdays. A lot. This has only been a relatively recent discovery. I like what Lewis Carroll has to say about it:

There are three hundred and sixty-four days when you might get un-birthday presents . . . and only one for birthday presents, you know.

Birthdays are special days only celebrated once a year. I didn't really understand what they actually could mean until this year. Birthdays are a day that we celebrate the life of a person. We show them how grateful we are that they are in our lives, because they make it so much better. We celebrate their entrance into mortality. We can do meaningful things on this day just to say, "I'm glad you were born."

Birthdays create an opportunity to reconnect with those people you haven't stayed in constant contact with. They are also days to build the friendship between people. Birthdays are a day where you can relearn everything about a person. Where you think of them and truly pray for the best succeeding years and great quality of life for this person.

However, in the celebration of a birthday, we must not forget that there are three hundred and sixty-four days when we can show this person that we are grateful for their presence in your life; that there are three hundred and sixty-fours days to build and strengthen relationships. Everyday, every time you come into contact with someone, they should leave your presence knowing that you really are grateful for the opportunity to know them in mortality. Birthdays are just extra special.