Even
in stressful times, life still goes on. Babies are born, couples get married,
and people still have other events, such as birthdays, to celebrate. Only in
times like these, people have to change their plans.
No
large family gatherings to celebrate Easter, or Mother’s Day. You can’t go to
church or throw a birthday party. You can’t even have that regular lunch date
with your friends. Planners have to cancel meetings, events, conferences, etc.
Parents
who had been planning big parties to celebrate milestone birthdays, or Easter,
with their children, find themselves having to scale back, regroup, and re-plan
the whole affair.
My
granddaughter celebrated both her first birthday and Easter home alone with just
her parents. (Okay, technically last year was her first Easter, but she’d only
been a few weeks old then.) My niece wanted to give a birthday party to her
youngest, inviting all her friends. My husband and I both had conferences we
had paid to attend. People all over the place are changing plans because of
this.
I’ve
heard of numerous churches finding ways to have their church meetings online
(ZOOM, etc.) My church changed its semi-annual largest meeting to a completely
online version without the large gathering of believers. My local congregation
is posting our weekly lessons online.
My
daughter planned my granddaughter’s birthday party to be online. The only ones
in the room with her for her big day were her mom and dad. Her aunts, uncles,
and grandparents had to watch it on Facebook. My niece asked about celebrating
her daughter’s birthday and I suggested she do something similar. Easter for my
granddaughter was also just with her parents with pictures posted after the
fact. In our house? The day after Easter, we finally got some candy because
some members complained about not having any, though that’s about all we did to
celebrate it. (My kids are all adults.)
Now
I like to plan for birthday celebrations just as I start shopping for Christmas
almost as soon as the New Year starts. Because of this, I usually have all the
gifts I’m getting my youngest son for the entire year purchased sometime in
March. April at the latest.
This
year?
Well
first, I was working full-time and had no energy for shopping. Then we were in
lockdown. By early April, my son asked me if I’d gotten his gift yet. I think I
shocked him when I told him no. What’s worse, I didn’t even do the shopping
that week. It was mid-April before I even considered it.
First,
I asked all my family members to give me ideas for gifts for them. Once I
started getting the suggestions back, I started shopping. Of course, the first
one I got gifts for was my son, then my sister and her sister-in-law. Next,
I’ll get them for my middle daughter. (I do them in order of birthdays.)
What
finally spurred me into action?
My
youngest son came and sat down beside me, with a long face. “My birthday is in
a couple weeks.”
“I
know.”
“Are
we even going to be able to celebrate it?”
My
immediate response was, “Of course.” Then I got to thinking about everything.
Of course, I set to work making sure he’d get a gift, but I also thought of
everything my daughter and niece had to go through to celebrate their
daughters’ birthdays. I was thinking about how different their celebrations had
to be than what their mom’s had wanted them to be. How many people are
celebrating their birthdays in ways very different than they are used to?
My
son is high functioning autistic. He doesn’t handle change very well.
Then
it dawned on me.
We
are going to celebrate his birthday exactly as we always celebrate it. At home,
just those family members who live in this house. He picks the cake, dinner, and
ice cream. We sing “Happy Birthday” to him. He opens any presents we got him.
For
him, nothing needs to change because how we usually celebrate works just fine
during all of this.
So
Friday, we’re going to get ice cream and make a cake and pizza. We’re going to
eat pizza and sing to him before we cut the cake. If his gift has arrived yet
(which it isn’t scheduled to), he’ll open it. Then we’ll have cake and ice
cream. Just like we always do.
It’s
nice to know not everything has to change when the whole world is topsy-turvy.
So
happy nineteenth birthday, Royce. I hope you have a day just like normal
because I know you’d prefer it.
Smile.
Make the day a brighter day.
