The Birth Day

Today is my birth day, the day I came into the world. While possible, I guess, I think it would be incredibly difficult to truly understand the meaning and miracle of this day if you have never given birth. I have had entries before about the power of birth--the amazing journey through labor ending with a new life in your arms. You know I love it and would do it over and over again.

For my mother, I am not sure it is such a fond memory. I was a long, long labor. A sizable baby that drifted behind the pelvis, which translated into hours and hours of painful back labor and a baby they couldn't get back on track without extensive use of forceps. No one's ideal birth story.

Today is really a day to celebrate my mother's achievement, her willingness to share her body with me, her bravery, her tenacity, her patience, her love for me even before I was born. It is so weird and primal when you think about it. Like the animals we truly are, we grow something inside of us. Once born, they still need years of care, and like mother birds with babies in the nest, we provide food, teach it to fly and how to build its own nest. At first, totally helpless, these babies slowly grow, and grow, and grow until they grow so much that we start caring for each other until finally, they most often care for us. But, no matter what, a mother never loses sight of her babies. And no matter how big they grow to be, they are always her babies.

I could go on and on forever about how amazing life is, and really how it is such a gift from God that denying his existence seems unfathomable to me. He is so obvious in the everyday...really, who else would think of putting hair in an armpit? I am so pleased with the gifts he has given me and our life together. While I seem to be on a perpetual path to work less and spend more time with the kids (a path I never fully travel down), our life is amazing and our family is whole and sealed together for all eternity.

Today on my birth day, I shall celebrate my life and the gifts of love, support, hope, trust, faith and forever-ness bestowed upon me by my mother and father. I will spend no time on my shortcomings, those days I yelled or ignored my kids, those days I wasn't the best wife or felt incredibly fat, those days I just couldn't wait to go to bed and start over. Today, it is all about the good and the gift of life.

I feel the love of my family every day, including my extended family. When it seems as if nothing is going right, I can feel their arms around me, all 40+ of them. My family, despite its warts and times of trouble, extends far beyond visits on the holidays. I am blessed with true love and I fully intend to acknowledge it everyday and to pay it forward.