The Birthday Explosion o' Love

Yesterday was my birthday, and it was awesome. I'm 31 now, and if birthdays partly set the tone for the coming year, this year is going to rock! Last year my birthday was a hard, sad day: my friend Adam found out his father died, so he and my best girl Dol didn't end up hanging out as planned; it was my first birthday in a decade without Michael; there were some really nice things that happened on that day, but overall it was a hard, sad day, and even-though there has been an amazing amount of wonderful, shiny moments this last year, there have been a lot of hard and sad ones too.

So this is a day I want to remember because it was a birthday explosion of love. I felt so loved from beginning until end!

The day started with me waking up at 6:15, changing into gym clothes, sitting meditation for a few minutes, drinking some lovely tea, opening birthday cards I had received in the mail over the prior several days and was saving up to open on The Day. I had a small cry because while there were cards from my siblings, my Chicago cousins/aunt/uncle, my maternal grandparents, but there was no card from my Grandma Betty who died a year and a half ago and I miss her so much. Missing her pops up in unexpected ways. So I went to the gym, then went to a meeting at 8:30 at the high school that I volunteer at. The folks on my committee had prepared cheese blintzes and sang to me--it was so awesome! I went to work for a few hours. I left work a little before 1pm to meet up with a co-worker/mentor/friend who took me to an amazing lunch.

She and I then drove back to my apartment and we did a lhasang. A lhasang is a tibetan buddhist purification ritual with juniper smoke. "Ki Ki So So Ashe Lha Gyal Lo Tak Seng Kyung Druk Di Yar Kye" we chanted as we took the juniper smoke into every room, every corner, every cabinet and drawer. Maybe it is kooky, maybe there is nothing that 'really' is different, but the idea of doing a ritual, to mark the beginning of something, to symbolically purify my living space and have a fresh start is something I'm really glad that I've done.

After the lhasang ended, I returned a few phone calls, picked up my mail and found more cards and packages waiting for me, talked to my sisters (yay!) went to Dol & Adam's place to feed their dog, went to the Indian Grocery that I visit once or twice a week to return a movie and pick up a new one. The store owner, who is one of the reasons I shop there so regularly, asked me why I was so happy and I told him it was my birthday. He not only refused to let me pay for my movie rental, but he insisted on giving me something sweet to have to symbolize having a sweet year. He tried to give me a giant tub of mango ice cream, but since I was going straight from there to dinner it would be mango soup. He gave me instead a box of sweets that I'm looking forward to cracking into this weekend! I then went to my self-declared women-only dinner with Dol and Miss J and Adam came for about 30 min, and we had lots and lots of yummy food and crazy amounts of cheese. I received an amazing gift of pottery named Mr. Wilson that Miss J made. I just can't stop touching it...it is so pretty! After dinner Miss J and I walked to downtown and on the way we took photos of crazy bean trees (Catalpa trees) filled with bean pods that were more than a foot long.
And we went to a coffee shop and got drinks and my Kombucha was free because it was my birthday! We sat outside and flirted with two little bitty children that were playing and flirting with us on the sidewalk. The little boy was probably 2 or 3 and the girl was 5 and they would come over and smile and squeal and hide their faces in their hands and run off and then slyly walk back over and repeat the process over and over and over...oh those two cuties! And then we walked and walked and walked and talked and talked and talked and it was starting to get dark so we headed back to our cars. And I was just giddy. I talked to my parents once more, and I talked to my brother for an hour and listened to more messages from more friends and talked to my friend Kash until I was falling asleep. More photos from my fun day can be found here.

The whole day was like a giant love explosion. I am 31. I am single, but I am not alone. I am loved by so many people. I love so many people. This will be a year of more adventures. This will be a year of less drama. This will be a year of having fun and being open to whatever comes my way. This will be a year of dreaming and a year of doing and a year of trying new things.