Tuesday, March 11, 2008

And I thank you Lord, for today...

Today's my birthday! Due to some red-tape bureaucracy and (and stupidity of the person in charge), my mother ended up holding my birth certificate with a different date printed on it. So, to my family and close friends, today's my birthday. But, 3 months from now, I'll be celebrating my birthday again with some colleagues, and I'll be receiving a lot of birthday offers & goodies, since in my IC, it is stated that I am actually 3 months younger than I actually am. Which may not be a bad thing.


This year, my birthday is extra special. It's no longer just an appropriate time to bake a cake (although I did just that). But it's also a chance for me to thank God for my life. It's funny how I have always taken life for granted, without realizing how fragile life can be.
I have never been grateful to wake up in the morning, still breathing, still living. Alive and kicking! Until recently.

So, this morning, when I opened my eyes, I just felt the rush of gratefulness all over me. Thank you, Lord..for today, for my life, for the chance to experience life until now.
For the first time, my birthday is no longer the count of years that I have lived. My birthday is now the count of the years of I have been allowed to live on.


I've got some gentle nudge on the topic of life from above. First, is from a blogger, who inspired me to come up with my own blog. She died in 2006, just 2 days shy from her 33th birthday. Like me, she's also a mother of two, who loved to cook and bake. She's passionate about life, with so much dreams ahead of her.

Another revelation came when I found out that a friend of mine has HIV. She has two young children. I dared not ask her, but I am sure that for her, every day is just a blessing. Being a mother, I have heaps of hope for my children. I am sure she's the same. And how painful it is to know that she would not be able to see them grow up or to see them graduate or to see them getting married. And especially, not being able to hug them, cuddle them, kiss them!

Another nudge manifested from watching K-drama, The Snow Queen. It's another tear-jerking, cliche drama, with a message, "Live, it is better to be alive". Oh, speak about tear jerking, I did not even shed a tear when the main character in the story died because of..cancer (gasp!). I think I've been watching too much of these kind of drama, I have built up the immunity. Sorry, I just love to digress.


So, a strawberry shortcake for my birthday. My DH said it was such a lovely cake, taste-wise, of course! In fact, I baked 2 cakes for my birthday, following the recipe blindly. Turned out that the recipe yielded 2 x 8" cakes, not one. So, my lucky neighbor got the other cake.


A special thanks for Y, with his marvelous birthday present. Being an unreasonable person I am, it takes an extraordinary husband to keep up with me. Y, if you read this, thank you, thank you, thank you. It's not a gift itself, but it's more of an effort that you put in to get the gift that really touched me. Thanks for waking me up at midnight, although I could not even wake up to look at the gift. Sorry to disappoint your surprise point. I was so sleepy.


Live, it is better to be alive.


a belated happy birthday note...