In Celebration of Birth Days

CELERY

Candles in the darkness bring to light. Candles on a birthday cake – what does it bring to light? The person celebrating the day they were born the life they have lived, perhaps the meaning of that life and how it has touched others. What indeed can the meaning or purpose of one’s life be, and how does one stay true to it.

Kindness, gentleness, humility, compassion. Selflessness, service to others, love of God, of a country, of fellow human beings. These are qualities we express when paying tribute to anyone who has left this world. He lives this a better place than what she or he found. We admire someone still living and who travels that same path. This way is close to what one might consider the meaning of a person’s life.

These are the “inner intangibles” that propel a person to action. We recognize this human being as composed of body and spirit…heart and soul…emotions…intellect, and free will.

In search of the “why” of life, people turn to religion or spirituality and find the answer. Many see the hand of a divine being at work, much like the potter with his clay or the painter with his brush, creating something for a reason. A Franciscan priest and author, Richard Rohr, refers to it as the “divine DNA.”

When one finds the “why,” the call is to live the “how” every day, if one turns his or her back to it, then one misses the mark and any birthday celebration loses the essence of a birthday.
One blows out the light from the candles on a birthday cake, making a wish. But one must keep the fire in celebration of one’s birth and life, committing to live its purpose and fulfillment.

*Written with the assistance of Alice E. Gonzaga