Birthday Season

Some people don't like to make a big fuss over their birthday. I am not one of these people. I like to commence my birthday season on the first day of autumn and celebrate multiple times with as many people as possible.  This year I am throwing myself an oyster-shucking dinner party. I'll also be taking myself out to lunch with girlfriends, buying myself flowers and using the occasion to go get my long-neglected nails cleaned up and painted.

Tonight I enjoyed a candlelit birthday-eve dinner party with my husband and son, using our best china.  While I drank champagne, Xavier sweetly cheers-ed me with his sippy-cup of bubbly water.  I have already talked to my mother, sister and niece and now text and facebook greetings have started to trickle in.  I'm feeling buzzy with love.  I just finished a decadent late night snack of warm toast - not too crunchy - with Theo dark chocolate drizzled with olive oil, washed down with a steaming cup of Siberian rose petal tea from the treasured teapot my husband gave me as a gift last year. And in a minute I might go swing on the porch in the autumn air with a dram of rum and think about all the happy moments in my life thus far.  If I've gained any wisdom throughout my years, it is that each birthday is a gift and something most definitely to be celebrated. The trick is figuring out how to remember this on a daily basis throughout the year.  I'm still working on that.

Since becoming a mother, I have new a new perspective on birthdays and now feel even more justified in celebrating on a grand scale.  If you don't remember your first birthday, let me tell you:  it is a really big deal.  When Xavier was born, our friends Julie and Chris gave him a beautiful illustrated book called On the Night You Were Born by Nancy Tillman.  I wish every person on the planet could read this book on their own birthday - or even better, have someone who loves them read it to them, whether they are turning five or ninety-five.

"On the night you were born, the moon smiled with such wonder that the stars peeked in to see you and the night wind whispered, "Life will never be the same." Because there had never been anyone like you...ever in the world."

Tomorrow I'll wake up happy with anticipation for the phone call from my father when he'll say, as he does every year, "The day you were born was one of the happiest days of my life."  I now say this to my son and I can't decide if it makes me more happy to hear it or to say it.

I charge you with the following mission:  Make a big fuss for birthdays of all the people you love.  Make a big fuss for your own birthday and let others do so too.  It is a very special day.  Go ahead, celebrate all birthday season long.