Birtday Bashes

Our apartment LOVES birthdays! We get way too excited about them. We have stared a ritual that I love and that I have recently realized symbolizes a lot more than just birthday wishes. For each person’s birthday we begin at midnight, of course, by banging into their room singing and dancing and celebrating their new year. And all we carry with us are a piece of paper and a marker. Then we go around and tell them why we love them and why we are glad they were birthed J I’m not going to lie, sometimes, we have shed a few tears of gratitude and love for them. . . Then, we do the fun part, we go around the room again and make predictions for their next year and record them on the paper. These are always fun to see what people guess and to see what comes true. Many of mine have already come true. Ex, another Big Bang before December 12 (breaking a leg), etc

Then when we wake up in the morning we devote the entire day to that person. We love them and this is one day of the year we can show all of our love to them (and they can’t say anything to protest)!

So yesterday was Amelia’s birthday and while we went through our favored birtday traditions, I realized that our traditions are an outward expression of something more. First, as we went around and told Meals why we loved her, I saw how that reflected our personal attachment to her. She radiates goodness, happiness, joyfulness, kindness, thoughtfulness, youthfulness, and love. And we love her for it.

I know feel a part of what the apostle Paul felt when speaking to his brethren. He counseled them to “be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you” (1 Corinthians 13:11). We are all trying our best to live in complete peace and communicate to be of one mind. I think because of our efforts we have love and peace in our appt. That is why we wanted to share it with Amelia – to show her we love her.

The second part of the night we make predictions. I think that shows how much we want each other to succeed and feel joy. When others around you are happy and successful (in any area) you rejoice with them because of the love and charity and hope you have for one another. Also, when we were making predictions for Amelia I saw how much potential we all saw in her. She is incredibly talented in so many areas. But the remarkable and nearly unfathomable part is that she even has more potential to be even more amazing.

I just love birthdays. I love celebrating people. I love celebrating their joys. I love celebrating my family’s birthday. And I love celebrating with my roommates – at my home away from home.