Birthday Celebration Journeys Anyone?

Birthdays for me have always been a journey, trust me I'm not joking, so I would tag this one Ije-NchetaOmumu - the journey of remembering the day of our birth. Haa Haa Haa, that's really a mouth full.

I am a March baby however, by December I would have had full settlement on birthday matters. Oh by the way I have had to fast forward to high school birthday celebrations because my primary school birthday celebrations were all below the radar (journey for another day). Story for another day.

Back to high school birthdays. I was in boarding school which was a full day's journey away from home, my mom was a teacher which meant she could not make it to see me on visiting days seeing it was practically impossible to get time off work at the time. Flights were not as common place as they are today so she would have required two full days for the full trip not inclusive of visiting day itself. This meant then that she had to get everything on my birthday list by December being the last holidays before my birthday. You do not even want to know what I had on my list then. Oh, my amazing mom.

I stressed everyone oh. It was a cardinal sin to miss out anything on that list.

And so the journey continues to present day times. I think a fast one was played on me because half of my household celebrates between January to March. With one child in Jan, another in Feb, mom in March, then another child in April - where exactly do I find the time to stress about my birthday. Suddenly priorities have changed.

As I get older, birthdays are more for reflecting on the past, being eternally grateful to God for how far He has brought me, planning for the new chapter opened up before me. The celebrations have journeyed into reflections with my focus being Psalm 90: 12 - So teach is to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. The Contemporary English Version so aptly says Teach us to use wisely all the time we have.

Sometimes those reflections are plain sad because I realise there is so much yet to be accomplished yet the age number is moving higher and higher. At other times, I am super grateful to God for the big and small blessings in my life, especially those things I did not even ask for but He counted me worthy of having. What are your birthday reflections? Do share in the comment section.

The other exciting thing about birthdays for me is those friends that I get to speak with only on my birthday and on theirs. Twice a year! But in those two phone calls or chats, we can catch up for the universe, like we never parted ways.

I still do love birthdays a lot. Just got through celebrating hubby's birthday and we are definitely filled with gratitude and ready for the next chapter life has opened up. Happy Birthday again my FrancoNero.

So who's celebrating next? Where da parry at?

Next Thursday, we will be shaking some tables of injustice; hope you're not currently seating at that particular table. What do you think my stories will be about? Share in the comment section.

Until then, please follow us on Instagram and Facebook; our handle is ije_journey.

See you all next Thursday.

Ije...... the journey.

Photo by David Holifield on Unsplash