Another Year

So this past week I had another birthday. I am officially one year older now. When I compare it to my last birthday, it was definitely a different experience. I won’t get into the details of my last birthday, but this birthday was quite pleasant, starting off with a phone call at midnight from a friend and their kids wishing me a happy birthday. When I informed the youngest of my new age, he replied “##?! Wow, you’re gonna be big when you grow up!!”

It was a weekday, so I decided to work from home, and got the usual calls from family, and facebook wall messages and emails. But its my kids that really made it special for me. I picked them up in the evening so we could all go out to dinner with my parents. I was greeted at the door hugs and happy birthdays and homemade birthday cards. We then piled into the car and headed to my parents and then off to Red Lobster for dinner!

The boys were just amazing that night. They were extremely happy, and full of laughter and fun. They each got an order of snow-crab legs (dutifully shelled by myself and my parents), along with popcorn shrimp. Then of course it was followed by a healthy helping of chocolate cake! We all shared one piece of course, that way too much chocolate for one person!

There was a possibility that they were not able to come due to illness, but alhumdulillah they were better, and it would not have been the same without the little guys. My boys definitely made it a happy birthday.

Looking back over the past year, so many things have changed. And projecting forward, I cannot fathom what my future holds. Come my next birthday, thing could be drastically different again. The thing to remember is to learn and grow from every experience we encounter. So whatever Allah (swt) has planned for me, I pray that I will have the wisdom to extract the goodness from it and become a better person.

~ by Amir on April 10, 2009.