Today is my eldest son’s birthday. Children’s birthdays are usually filled with fun, noise, excitement and E-numbers. In the last few days, a neighbour even had a Bouncy Castle in the front garden and his voice was clearly audible among the squeals. Back in the day, if they existed at all, bouncy castles were probably secret training devices at NASA.
Birthdays take on different meanings through life. We start out counting ‘Big Sleeps’, move to ‘Rites of Passage’, then ‘Intimate Celebrations’ before turning a corner to start counting accumulating pounds, then wrinkles and aches and eventually getting to the point where we stop counting altogether – possibly because we no longer can. (Personally I’m somewhere between stages three and four😊)
Some years ago I decided that every day is a birthday. Gifts come to us every day. Starting out we may look for lots of plastic in primary colours but later we appreciate the intangible learnings and inward smiles that come from experience. We advance – ever more quickly – to the realisation that every day we can get out of bed is a school-day when new ideas can be born. Though I appreciate lightbulb moments anytime I’d prefer that they came after dawn.
I’ve come to see that the planned lightbulbs of focussed learning give way to observation and acceptance. Indeed, I remember my mother telling me – ‘If you live long enough you’ll see everything’. Before her Shakespeare told us that ‘Nothing is either good or bad but thinking makes it so’. I’m not there yet, and I’m not in any hurry to get there. It’s nice / naive to ‘be right’ for a few years, and judgementally point fingers. In a way it’s a buffer against growth, a harbour in a storm. May tomorrow’s vacant, toothless smile have everything to do with acceptance and serenity and nothing to do with bouncy castle accidents.
Happy Birthday Son
