I don’t think birthdays are overrated.
I like birthdays because of all of the obvious things about them: birthday cake, candles, cards and random wishes of Happy Birthday that come by phone, texts, e-mails, and of course, on Facebook. For the most part, everything about today, my birthday, will live in the ordinary. I will run in the morning, shower and get dressed. I will pour my daughter’s cereal in a bowl, make her lunch and kiss my husband goodbye before he goes to work. My routine doesn’t stop because its my birthday.
But throughout the day, there will be brief flickers, reminders that this day is special. Cake and ice cream, birthday presents, and lunches/dinners reminding you that you have the privilege of living another year. And that you matter. People love you enough to celebrate with you.
And that is what it is all about. To love and to be loved. Especially on your birthday.
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Do you enjoy celebrating birthdays? How do you celebrate them? Do you think birthdays are overrated? If so, why?
Welcome! I am a lawyer turned freelance writer, essayist, and editor. On staff at Literary Mama and the co-founder and co-editor of the literary journal, The Sunlight Press, my essays and reported work have appeared in The Washington Post, The Lily, Saveur, Civil Eats, Brain, Child, ESPN and elsewhere. I am currently at work on a memoir on grief and culture and how it provides perspective on life’s ordinary graces. I invite you to appreciate the ordinary with me. I hope my daily practice of seeing the magic in the mundane helps you celebrate and find more of these moments in your life too.
Happy birthday, Rudri! Hope you have lots of special moments today! And lots of cake, of course!
Happy Birthday, Rudri. I like birthdays for the same reasons… mostly they are ordinary, but you feel a little extra special all day. And the people who love you give you a little extra love/attention (or presents!). Have a wonderful day! 🙂
Hey! A very Happy Birthday to you! (That cake looks delicious…can I come over and join you)?!
Have a wonderful day. xo
I love birthdays! Really any chance to celebrate is worth while. Happy Birthday! Have a great day!!!
Happy birthday, Rudri! Cheers to another year to love and be loved!
Happy birthday, Rudri! I hope that you get to enjoy many special moments with your special people today.
Birthdays are milestones… another year, another reminder of a year passed. How fortunate we are to be here and to make “our mark” doing whatever it is we are supposed to be doing?! Have a blessed birthday, Rudri… you deserve it! May you enjoy many, many more in the future with all those that you love and love you! 🙂
XOXO-
Angie
Happy Birthday Hun,
It may be just another day to most but all that matters is that it is special to you…here is to another wonderful year!!
Ashish
Happy Birthday, Rudri!
Heck no! Whoever says birthdays are overrated are old and crotchety with no one around who showers them with love and adoration! Birthdays are a celebration of a life born and lived with gusto and joy. In this day and age where death seems more celebrated than life, birthdays are a light.
It is VERY special!! Happy Birthday blogging friend!!
Happy Birthday Rudri!
We should be grateful for birthdays, since they give our family and friends special permission to tell us we are important to them. Hope it’s special.
Happy birthday!!! I just found your blog and I love it! Some of your posts resonate with me. I hope you had a great birthday .
Indeed, birthdays are special, if not for all the grandeur that surrounds them, then for the people they celebrate…namely you!! Here’s to many more blogs, and the uniquely talented writer Rudri Bhatt-Patel!
Much love,
Radhi
p.s. I know Dad is up there celebrating your special day as well! We’ll have an extra piece of cake for you, Dad! Miss and love you!
Happy belated birthday. (Hope you still have some leftover cake!)
Happy birthday! I hope it was special – it should be. I like to lie low for my birthday – I save it all up for the winter holidays! – but I love getting notes in the mail. I adore celebrating my husband’s and best friend’s birthdays, on the other hand, and I don’t know that I’ve ever gotten cards for either of them! 🙂
What??! How did I miss this? Happy belated birthday Rudri! Hope it was all you hoped for.
Birthdays are big in my house. If I can get away with birth month, I would. But I definitely think that life is worth celebrating, even smaller milestones, let alone the day you were born!
Oh, that cake! Somebody loves you a really, really lot!! Hope you enjoyed every morsel. =>
Happy belated birthday! We are birthday celebrators, though not necessarily in huge and extravagant ways. The children get the parties and the adults get smaller, more intimate gifts (which could be anything from a photograph to surprise football tickets).
I hope your birthday was fabulous. I always made a point of making birthdays really special for my kids because mine were not treated that way growing up and I felt I missed out. Now that my kids are grown, we still make it special, as well as the hubby and I do for one another.