“The Echoing Day of Our Birth”

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!

 

About Becky Dingle

I was born a Tarheel but ended up a Sandlapper. My grandparents were cotton farmers in Laurens, South Carolina and it was in my grandmother’s house that my love of storytelling began beside an old Franklin stove. When I graduated from Laurens High School, I attended Erskine College (Due West of what?) and would later get my Masters Degree in Education/Social Studies from Charleston Southern. I am presently an adjunct professor/clinical supervisor at CSU and have also taught at the College of Charleston. For 28 years I taught Social Studies through storytelling. My philosophy matched Rudyard Kipling’s quote: “If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten.” Today I still spread this message through workshops and presentations throughout the state. The secret of success in teaching social studies is always in the story. I want to keep learning and being surprised by life…it is the greatest teacher. Like Kermit said, “When you’re green you grow, when you’re ripe you rot.”
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6 Responses to “The Echoing Day of Our Birth”

  1. Sis Kinney says:

    HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BECKY & JAKE!!
    Hope you each have a wonderfully blessed day!

  2. Rachel Edwards says:

    Have a wondeful day…love you.

  3. ambikasur says:

    Happy birthday Boo and Jakie.. God bless you with good health and prosperity… Loads of love n prayers..

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