Birthdays

What comes first to mind when the word birthday is spoken?

Cake?

Chocolate, with wild berries. Or maybe some candies, just enough to share a treat.

Or maybe nothing at all — who would you celebrate with?

Gifts?

Something small, yet immense. Sometimes it’s enough for just that one person to pick up the phone, to send a message, to appear at the door.

Aging?

Another year has passed, yet nothing has changed. You’re still alone. You thought this year you’d have a family, but things didn’t go as planned. God had another plan for you. Another partner. Someone else with whom you will complement each other.

A celebration?

Closing the day surrounded by your dearest.A celebration with your beloved.

Or perhaps a celebration with everyone except the beloved?

I know people who despise their own birthdays, because on that very same day, a life was extinguished.

A life of someone who remains only in memories.

Memories that burn brighter with each blowing out of birthday candles.

A person who should be there with them on such an important day.

One arrives — another leaves.

I know people who do not like their birthdays for other reasons, perhaps less profound.

But if they left such a mark, were those reasons less significant?

Or did someone just dare to call them trivial, because they couldn’t understand their weight?

For a child, a birthday celebration means everything.

All the friends gathered, all the relatives. Gifts from all of them.

New favorite toys, a piggy bank filled to the brim, a soul overfilled with joy.

And then some never heard “Happy Birthday.”

And others who could not be given anything beyond those words.

Some receive a gift because the day demands it. And every single gift tells you how well someone knows you.

Because you wouldn’t gift jewelry to someone who never wears it, right?

You wouldn’t gift a book to someone who never reads.

Not a CD to someone without a place to play it.

Not everyone values a handmade picture from you.

And not everyone deserves the time you spend creating a unique gift.

Just as not everyone deserves an engraved gift with the most sincere message, right?

And then some are aware of how well you know them and simply don’t care. Because nowadays, it’s rare to truly read someone with just a glance. Five minutes near them. One sigh.

With those people, birthdays are the dearest, the sweetest, the richest. With them, you need nothing but their presence. And sometimes, that is exactly what we lack.

I remember, for your birthday, I didn’t even have a broken dime.

Unemployed, I spent my entire savings…I had enough to buy candles, but not for a cake. Luckily, we arranged with friends to go out for dinner. You never let me pay when we went out, so all I could do was ask the waiters to put the candles on a dessert. Sometimes you don’t need much, right? And I was happier about your birthday than my own.

And for the next birthday, I will celebrate it as beautifully as I can.I will throw the biggest party, with all known and unknown, and toast to everyone who has been part of my life, and then let go.I will toast to another year of experience.I will toast to another year of life . To the friends without whom this life would have no meaning.To the parents who are the greatest gift, and to our health.

And within myself, I will toast to all those who exist only in thoughts.

Cheers!

Disclaimer:

The stories are seasoned with a lot of drama, and the characters are fictional because the drama starts when logic ends. ☺