Today is the anniversary of my birth. I've always thought the term birthday rather odd because one only has one: the day of one's birth. Anyway by common usage today is my Birthday. I rarely celebrate my birthday. In fact I've never given birthdays the importance that many people obviously feel they are due. Somehow, though, I had a feeling a few weeks ago that this birthday was going to be a bit different: it was going to be a Good Day.
It has been. It started yesterday with a meal out at Digby Chick with my son Gaz, his wife and her parents. It was a very special evening.
Today the sun has shone and despite the wind still being from the North it was not so cold that I haven't been able to spend three hours in the garden during the day. My knee isn't complaining either.
I've had visits and phone calls and messages and cards and presents and I don't know whether I've just been more sensitive to it but I actually feel I'm having a birthday in a way that I haven't for as long as I can remember: well my 60th actually when very dear friends organised a huge party.
So I'm writing this whilst waiting for a lift to Pat and Dave's for dinner where I know that I will have a lovely, relaxing evening with good company, good food and good wine. What more could a man want?
My birthday is also the anniversary of the death of our son Andrew. This year is the tenth anniversary. It is also the anniversary of the death of a very dear friend's father.
Our son Gaz proposed to his, now, wife Carol on this day too.
So today is a day of special memories and reflections and of mixed emotions and despite that it is still a Good Day.
I will do a more reflective post tomorrow but for now I shall sit in the sun-drenched conservatory and pour myself a G and T (Thank you Gaz and Carol) :
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| Isle of Harris Gin |
I'm glad that you had a Good Day! May there also be a Good Year ahead! :) ♥
ReplyDeleteThank you Monica.
DeleteHappy day Caloo Calay!
ReplyDeleteThank you Kate my Jabberwocky friend.
DeleteHope it is a good day too
ReplyDelete'Twas indeed Andrea. Thanks.
DeleteThere are of course 365 days in most years. What a strange co-incidence that Andrew left the land of the living on June 4th. As you say... a day of mixed emotions... even so I send you birthday greetings. Happy Birthday Graham!
ReplyDeleteThank you YP. I suppose in many thing in life odds of 365:1 would be considered quite good.
Deletea very good day indeed :) So many coincidences and memories. Glad you got to spend it with the people that matter doing things you love.
ReplyDeleteIf it had been a Thursday I could have got a Thankful Thursday post out of it Fiona.
DeleteNice bottle and great post. Many happy returns (now there's a strange turn of phrase for you).
ReplyDeleteCarol the gin is distilled at a new distillery on the Isle of Harris and is proving exceptionally popular. It has a very distinctive taste from kelp sugars. That was the first time I had tried it. It won't be the last!
DeleteIt sounds as if it was a very good birthday this year Graham, and I am glad -and glad the weather cooperated too.
ReplyDeleteIt must be very difficult to have such very mixed feelings associated with this day, too, though. I had something a little bit similar, although not as extreme, because both my parents died so close to my real birthday, in January, that it completely overshadowed it on two separate years. When my mother died I thought, I've had enough of my birthday being in January and told everyone my "official" birthday is now in May, which is a much nicer time of year.
Anyway, it is very nice to be able to end this post is by saying, "Happy Birthday!" - because your post shows that you have had one!
I did have a lovely day Jenny. Thank you. the idea of an 'official' birthday could be used, too, by people like my daughter-in-law who's birthday is 24 December.
DeleteHappy birthday, Graham. Hope you are having a great night and a well deserved celebration with Dave and Pat.
ReplyDeleteThank you Pauline. You'd have enjoyed the craic and the fact that the sun doesn't go down at the moment (when it's actually showing itself!) until nearly 2230 and it doesn't get dark all night.
DeleteHappy birthday! I hope you had a great day. You have a couple more very significant memories on your day.
ReplyDeleteYes Red it's a hard day to forget.
DeleteI so agree with you about the word 'birthday', which is why I thoroughly approve of the French word 'Anniversaire'.
ReplyDeleteCro I recall being in Charroux one year and wanting birthday cards and finding out that Anniversaire cards are nowhere near as popular in France as they are in the UK but I did approve of the term. I might start using it and see if I can set a trend going.
DeleteIn Italian, birthday is "compleanno", literally "completion of a year", which is perfectly true.
DeleteI like that bit of information Meike. Thanks.
DeleteBelated Happy Birthday wishes from me, Graham!
ReplyDeleteThe anniversaries of such different events all falling on the same day are a reflection of life itself, aren't they. So often, the good and the bad, the happy and the sad, are so very close together. There is a sentence in an old church hymn I've learned many years ago when I was still part of the choir that goes "Mitten wir im Leben sind mit dem Tod umfangen." (The "wrong" grammatical construction of the sentence is of course due to it being very old and set to music.) In Latin, it is Media Vita in Morte Sumus, and although it became truly popular when Martin Luther wrote a hymn around it, the word were in use already as early as around the year 750.
To me, it's not "morbid" to think such thoughts in connection with someone's (even my own) birthday, but it is realism and being down-to-earth, while at the same time allowing me to enjoy what good things life has in store for me, even "small" things, to the full. You and I have been, independently of each other, at close quarters with untimely deaths of loved ones, and can appreciate life all the more for it, I think.
Good friends, good food and good drink - what more indeed could anyone want for their birthday!
I like the look of that gin bottle. Is it possible to order online? O.K. is a gin "fan" and I am sure this would make a great present for him.
Meike I wouldn't have realised the wrong grammatical construction in the German although I could work it out - just and then I read the Latin which I recognised. It is indeed. As usual you have the right thoughts and the right words for the occasion.
DeleteThe gin is available on line and it can be sent to Germany as it happens. See here.
Glad we could be there to celebrate your anniversary of arrival on the planet. Had a great night on Friday, everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Enjoyed one too many of the Harris gins on Saturday myself.
ReplyDeleteThanks Gaz. Thank you all for dinner and for making it a lovely evening. Yes the gin is rather moreish.
DeleteHappy Birthday for the 4th Graham...I apologise for running late. I lost the weekend somehow. Sorry you've had to go through the loss of your son....I can't imagine the sorrow of losing a child.
ReplyDeleteLife goes on Lee. Thank you for your thoughts.
DeleteWell I am a bit late at wishing you a happy 'anniversary' of your birth, but the sentiment is the same. Glad you had a good day - what a mix of anniversaries on such a day!
ReplyDeleteSerenata it's what makes life what it is and we who we are.
DeleteReally glad you had such a good day GB and thank you for your email. I shall keep fingers crossed that the weather stays fine for you, xxx
ReplyDeleteThanks Helen. It's beautiful today and I've been at the Grim all day varnishing oak door surrounds. The better the day, though, the better the deed!
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