Maria’s birthday is today and it is a day to measure things, consider time, look forward, celebrate this joyous and open-hearted and creative person. Someone asked me on Facebook the other day if I have heard from my angels lately, and the truth is I hear from my angel every day. She encourages me in my work, supports me in my healing, fuels my inspiration, is an anchor in my determination to grow, change, find compassion and strength to do what I need to do. Through Maria’s birthday I measure my own life also. Every day, I learn what sharing a life means.
When we first celebrated her birthday, I whisked Maria off to expensive hotels, brought her a bunch of gifts, made reservations at expensive restaurants. We had a good time, but I also understand that this was something I needed, not something she needed. This year, our lives evolve. No fancy trips. We are celebrating her first birthday in our new home, our first home together, the first home she feels is hers to live in, one she shaped with her own remarkable energy and creativity.
I measure my life before Maria and after Maria, and it is curious because I was rich in money and material things and impoverished in the heart and soul and now I am poorer in material things and richer than I have ever been. Every morning, my sun rises with her radiant smile and my heart lifts when she rushes off to her beloved studio with Frieda or Lenore – she always has a dog at her feet – and works her magic with old cloths and discarded fabrics. Her gentle blog reflects her loving soul. She spins straw into gold every day of her life, and in my own body and soul. A friend told me I must be a good person to have a person like this love me. A beautiful thought. True, I hope. True, I dare to think.
Today I will devote myself to her love and comfort, as she devotes herself to me every day in the most selfless and generous of ways. My wish for the world is that everyone find a spirit like this to love and share their lives. I’ll do all of the farm chores today, let her rest, ask her how she wants to spend the day and make it happen. Birthdays are not important to either of us, really, we can march the progress of life every single day.
But some rituals are important to mark and today does seem important to me. Such ritual requires us to look at our lives, to wonder at the curious and imperfect miracle life. To honor the nature of life and the passing of time. It is customary for me to hear people bemoan their birthdays – growing older, another year. I will not hear any such words from my partner in life. She cherishes every day of her life and does not soil them with laments or struggle or the bemoaning of her life. I wish my angel the happiest and most meaningful of birthdays and will work to make it so. Happy Birthday, angel, and my your precious spirit soar for all time.