Thursday

Gifts of Love

   Our days are full of responsibilities and flying from one task to another, but there is one day that belongs to us. It is our birthday, our special day. Hopefully, we will be able to spend a part of it with ones whom we love and who love us. However, that isn't always the case.
   The military personnel overseas don't get to set aside a day to celebrate, as they are busy protecting their loved ones back home and our country. Loved ones in a hospital, clinging to life, rarely know what day it is. Birthdays can slip by unnoticed. Different situations present unusual ways to remember.
   Today is my birthday. Overwhelmed with gifts of love sent in phone calls, e-mails, e- cards, messages on facebook, a florist delivering flowers, and a dear friend bringing a birthday cake, along with delicious meals, I am brought to tears. All of the thoughtfulness is so humbling.
    After a year of forgetting birthdays, I see this incredible outpouring of love and thoughtfulness. Gifts of love so undeserving.
   I resolve to make this birthday a new beginning, a new year. Much like we do at the beginning of a new year, I cherish birthdays to be the beginning for my life. It is a time to renew the ties that mean so much. From being a better wife, friend, mother, grandmother, sister, photographer, it is all of you who send so much loving support and encouragement that I celebrate and thank today.
    Today, I think of all the gifts of love you have given me. My husband, who has courageously fought an illness each and every day, the friends who stop and encourage us with visits, calls, cards, e-mails, our wonderful children coming to love on us, grandchildren coming by with hugs and laughter, my sister's wonderful culinary skills , my dear friend, Shay, an angel of mercy, who supplies us with food, books, cards, and a generous amount of hugs and beautiful prayers, to friends/pastors coming by to uplift our spirits, to clients who have been so incredibly patient and loving, to those who are in front of my lens as strangers and who later become dear friends, a part of our extended family, to friends whom I have not seen since graduating high school, taking a minute to send delightful messages and reconnecting after all these years.  I am the richest woman in the world today.
   The handwritten note, in the foreground of the picture, is the paper that my husband jotted his birthday message to me on and then put on facebook. It is more beautiful than any of the elegant cards he bought each year. Is there a greater treasure than to see his scrawling penmanship, barely resembling his beautiful penmanship from before, saying he wishes for me to have many October 8's and to live them to the fullest? He knows he won't be here for the next one. I may not either. None of us are guaranteed that we will see another day.
   Today, I thank God for all of you, for your gifts of love and for giving/connecting in so many various ways. For the ability of capturing small moments in pictures, to treasure the rest of our lives, I am deeply grateful. Most of all, I am grateful for life and the ability to celebrate every moment, every breath, with people whom I love, doing what I love. It is from this well of thanksgiving that I photograph. It is from the heart that knows these moments will never be repeated, that I photograph. So it is with a photograph, I show you a glimpse of today.  You made it my day, my special day to reflect all you have given to me. Words can never express my gratitude to each of you.

"If I had a single flower for every time I think about you, I could walk forever in my garden." - C. Ghandi

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