My Birthday

I'm now 41 years old or young. My birthday was Saturday a week ago. I'm just happy 40 is overwith. I talked with someone two or three years ago who had just turned 41, and he said he was so glad 40 was overwith, that it was awful for him. I can relate.

When I turned 38, I had my first birthday party since I had turned 16, something I had planned. It's funny that I was unemployed at the time and could better afford to have a party then than I've been able to in the past two years, so much so that I haven't had a party. I take it as my expense because I hate for people to have to go out of their way to do something for me. For me, it really is just another day.

This past year and a half, however, I've been really down—down on myself, down about my job, down about life in general (I know you could never tell from reading previous posts here). Kind of like fishing for compliments, I could ask a couple of people to have a party for me, and they would do it. But it would be kind of hollow and meaningless to me. So, this year, I asked God, well, I told Him, actually, that it would be nice if someone did something for me this year without my knowledge or input. Nothing spectacular, just some acknowledgment of my existence.

On Sundays, I normally have to set up the chairs in my room for my class. I got there super early and wasn't able to get into the class because people from the previous hour were still in there, so I just went to our fellowship time and forgot about setting up the room. When it was time to go in to class from the opening assembly, there were balloons hanging from the ceiling (20 or 30), and everyone had a Batman mask on. And there were brownies, too. Yum!

On Sunday night, my friend Clay took me to dinner and a movie (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, very funny if you've read the book, but you might think it's just weird if you don't like British humor or were expecting a “normal” movie), quite unexpected. We also got to enjoy a lovely thunderstorm together and watch the lights in the shopping center go black from a lightning strike when I dropped him off. Fun fun fun.

Then on Monday (Memorial Day), we had our fourth annual pool party at John's house. Someone had gotten an ice cream cake for all the people whose birthdays were that weekend, and I was included on the cake. This has never happened in the previous years, at least not that I recall (i.e., there has never been a cake at John's house at all; at other times in the past at other places there have been cakes where I wasn't included, but several others were).

And then, Friday night, I got to have dinner with some friends in honor of my birthday. (I know it's almost a week after the fact, but it was still fun and much needed after the hellacious day at work I had.)

I really did feel special this year, and I'm extremely grateful to God for inspiring people to do something, and for the people to be responsive to that urging. Once I put it all together, I was in tears for all of it. Thank you, God, for responding to not even a request but just a wish virtually unspoken and letting me know that I am known and worthy.