Twenty Nineteen has been my most emotional Birthday period, ever. Maybe this is because I am way past my expiration day – according to a cherished family member. At least he says it to my face.

I got to spend five days with a little visitor I have known for 41 years. She was only five when I first met her — something I could never have imagined.

Anticipating it, excited yet uncomfortable at the same time. It turned out to be a shower of blessings for me. Something that will probably never happen again – but – I am good with that.

Then a week ago was my son’s entire family got together, for THE DINNER. I had asked them (or more like warned them) not to give me any presents for goodness sake. I do not need any more stuff. Instead, I ask them to write me a note. 

I thought that would be a relaxed alternative for them. As it turned out, it was, again, a shower of blessings. Reminds me of the old Southern Baptist Hymn “There shall be showers of blessings,” written in 1886, by Daniel Webster. Notes are so much more than comments at a memorial service.

I saved the family notes till my actual birthday, by myself. I could never have prepared myself for what was shared. Things that I would have never remembered had they not written them. Things I would never have considered worth remembering (imagining that I was in their place.)

Then here today a week afterward - and a little kid I met, decades ago, at my old church in Missouri he sends me this comment “Thanks for modeling this” with the following link – [https://utmost.org/the-ministry-of-the-unnoticed/]. Accompanied by so many kind comments on recent Facebook Posts. WOW

Mid-Week there was a show-stopping phone call. It was a girl I had never met but talked with on the phone – probably a decade ago. I recognized her last name, but the conversation instantly took me back to March of 1999. A refresher course in surviving trauma. Can I only hope we did okay?

So I am a week out of the starting gate to the BIG 80. And my emotional gas tank is full.

Tragedy and Tranquility - GV 02 - 0821.2019