Dear Reader:

The most beautiful moon flower blossom to date…one that secretly bloomed during the night, bloomed in an azalea bush instead of on the trellis…thus putting it in the path of the morning light that shone through the exquisite translucent petals to reveal the chartreuse-colored morning “star.”

Now, truly, can anybody get a better gift than this for their birthday…nothing short of a miracle. Several factors had to come together, perfectly timed, to create this magnificent, memorable gift from God. Thank you!

A poem kept nagging at my memory…beautiful lyrics to one’s natal day from long ago. I should have known it would come from the Irish theologian/poet JOhn O’ Donohue. Here are three of my favorite stanzas from the poem: A “Blessing for Your Birthday”!

Blessed be the mind that dreamed the day
The blueprint of your life
Would begin to glow on earth,
Illuminating all the faces and voices
That would arrive to invite
Your soul to growth.

Blessed be the gifts you never notice,
Your health, eyes to behold the world,
Thoughts to countenance the unknown,
Memory to harvest vanished days,
Your heart to feel the world’s waves,
Your breath to breathe the nourishment
Of distance made intimate by earth.

On this echoing-day of your birth,
May you open the gift of solitude
In order to receive your soul;
Enter the generosity of silence
To hear your hidden heart,
Know the serenity of stillness
To be enfolded anew
By the miracle of your being.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………..

I do want to pause and thank everyone who became and shared part of my life…helping me become the person God created me to be. Parents, family, friends, teachers, pastors, children, grandchildren, pets, and strangers who delivered guidance, unknowingly, to re-direct my path. Everyone played and continues to play the role of my compass through life.

Help me remember to live my life through a moral compass...not by a clock.

So until tomorrow…

“Today is my favorite day”   Winnie the Pooh

My neighbor Vickie stopped by yesterday with this big birthday basket of purple asters….my house, porch, deck and garden are getting more “fallish” by the day! Thank you so much Vickie!

A Big Shout-Out to Jake, my adorable grandson, who is turning six today while his Boo Boo is not…… turning six. 🙂

What a blessing it was six years ago when I discovered Jake had picked my birthday to arrive on…I knew then that I had received a birthday gift that would change September 24 forever and it has. Jake and I love sharing our birthdays…this year…a pirate theme…ARRGH! (along with a car theme, a surfer theme) it’s hard to pin down this young “rennaissance” man of the future! 🙂

Birthday Memories! Don’t know if you can see (1st photo to left)…but when I arrived at the hospital and saw Jake for the first time…he winked at me…he had planned to come on my birthday and he had pulled it off…so special!