It’s Birthday Time Again!

FOOTSTEPS AND FINGERPRINTS
by: NANCY RUSSELL CATAN

Birthdays are special milestones in our lives – to observe a personal closure with the past year, and prepare ourselves for new beginnings. We celebrated both my birthday and my husband’s birthday in October; in the next two months there are 8 more birthdays in our family. I like to think that with each birthday we turn, not just older and hopefully wiser with the years, but newer each day. It is a time to mark the many profound changes that have occurred during the year, to reflect on how these changes have helped us grow into better and stronger persons, and to celebrate with thanksgiving the abundant blessings the Lord has showered on us.

It is when birthdays roll around year after year, that we realize that outwardly, we are not getting any younger. Physical strength and beauty decline with time; this is a fact of life.

But inwardly, I believe that I am renewing myself little by little, day by day. I renew myself through new experiences, by reading a mind-expanding book, through chats with friends and making new friends, by being creative in my leisure time, by learning a new office skill or computer program at work. My newest challenge is editing the BCBP Community Portal website www.bcbpphil.

com. This is truly a learning experience for one who is somewhat “technology challenged”!

I refresh my tiredness through exercising (the MAPECON gifted me with a treadmill…big HINT!) or taking a walk along the beach or trekking a path in Valencia. I banish my stress as I sing a new song, dance to an old melody, or just enjoy listening to a selection of Mozart’s greatest hits. I re-energize and rejoice in life together with my apo during their visits; just listening to the stories of their adventures is soul-warming.

I play with our dogs, laugh with Calvin and Hobbes, try out a new recipe for supper.

Problems and troubles will not last forever. They only last as long as we will let them. The big problems I try to make friends with; the small problems many times solve themselves without much of my help. It is the worry and anxiety that cause the deep wrinkles in our face and aches in our bones, joints and nerves.

Each birthday is a special day given to us to start over, to forgive and forget, and to remember that life is a gift that God has given us. It is a day to set aside time to discover our true self, to reflect on what we have learned during the past years, to embrace the present, to rejoice in the gift of another day, to dream, and to look forward with eager anticipation to the blessings of the future.

One quotation that I have jotted down in my journal, author not noted, says, “I believe that God has a dream for each of us, and our greatest challenge and joy lies in finding and following that dream wherever it may lead.”

Now that I think about it, each day in life should be celebrated as a birthday. When we awake in the morning, we wake to the birth of a new day. Happy Birthday to all of us!