It's My Party and I'll....Eat Cake If I Want to?!!

Today is my birthday and I've come full-circle.


Not with my personal relationship with the Lord, though that walk could also be classified as at least coming semi-circle.


But the celebration itself has gone from excitedly helping my mom plan themed parties from Raggedy Ann to Ms. Pac-Man to wanting a low-key, handmade-cards-from-the-kids-and-a-chocolate-cake-only affair, and back to shouting-from-the-rafters IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!


It's a special day. I don't need the big party. Facebook has made birthdays special in a way Chuck E. Cheese never could.


I look forward to those calls, texts, and social media posts. I excitedly check the mailbox. It's my birthday. Who knows if I'm nearing, surpassing, or hitting dead-on that halfway mark?


So I was game last night in my early birthday dinner with friends at Red Lobster and forced down ice cream after several rounds of Endless Shrimp while a trio of servers, and many nearby diners, serenaded me with a Happy Birthday song.


My husband hates such displays.


I love them!


After all, birthdays are special.


I once knew a man who hated birthday celebrations, got mad at work birthday gatherings, and even madder if you wished him a happy birthday.


I wondered what had caused him to despise celebrating life itself.


This is why, early on in my ministry, I made it a point to record everyone's birthday and favorite cake.


Mine, by the way, is a chocolate cake with chocolate icing and a chocolate fudge layer in the middle.


I learned how to make coconut cakes, pineapple upside-down cakes, and strawberry shortcake.


For some, it was the cake their moms had made each year when they were kids. For others, it was the only birthday cake they'd ever had in their entire life.


For one day, they felt special.


It was one of the things that fell by the wayside when the ministry load grew.


My last cake, a pineapple upside down cake, was made at midnight. I realized I'd forgotten the eggs after my batter was poured over my only pineapples. After rinsing my pineapples and making a new batch of batter, I was dismayed to find that my pineapple upside-down cake slid into a pineapple-on-the-side cake.


It was a heartbreaking decision to stop.


I do, however, still keep up with birthdays and always at least acknowledge them with a song. Sometimes I even have a plate of cookies.


I still daydream about creating a program in which bakeries or even service organizations bake cakes for the homeless.


Maybe all they need is a birthday celebration to realize how special life truly is!