Celebrating-Life

Birthdays are celebrations of life when you are present to celebrate and can be actively involved in the celebration. A “Celebration of Life” for you happens when you’re no longer around for the celebration - you’re dead. (Jean) Thankfully, I’m around for this year’s celebration of my birthday today. I have been actively involved in expressing the way in which I want to spend this birthday. At times, my life’s journey has felt like being on a roller-coaster ride and other times like a cruise ship sailing smoothly along. ...

[caption id=“attachment_2662” align=“aligncenter” width=“800”] To live in hearts we leave behind Is not to die. ~Thomas Campbell, “Hallowed Ground”[/caption] What a way to remember one’s dead! The Day of the Dead or Dia de Muertos celebrations took place here in Toronto yesterday at Harbourfront and is taking place again today. It’s a two day Festival which has its roots in Mexico. The atmosphere was festive rather than mournful - although all the paraphernalia surrounding death was visible there. “The Mexican holiday of Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, takes place over the first two days of November. Its origins are a mixture of Native American traditions and a set of Catholic holidays. While the holiday’s observances include spending time in cemeteries, making shrines to the dead, and displaying artistic representations of skulls and skeletons, the occasion is festive, rather than morbid. Death isn’t seen as the end of one’s life, but as a natural part of the life cycle; the dead continue to exist much as they did in their lives, and come back to visit the living every year.” (Factmonster.com) Would that we would all be like the Mexicans who are able to have joyful and celebratory feelings about death and dying. This is truly a blessing. ...

Age does not make us childish, as some say; it finds us true children. - Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe [caption id=“attachment_2081” align=“aligncenter” width=“584”] “The best way to pay for a lovely moment is to enjoy it.” – Richard Bach[/caption] Celebrating life whenever we have the opportunity and savoring all the special moments is an opportunity we should never pass up. Sixty-fifth and seventieth birthdays have their own blessings - because we didn’t ever expect to live this long. To wait for a child to be present for the celebration who also had a birthday we were not present for is a gift beyond words. “Love is, above all, the gift of oneself.” (Jean Anouilh) Our enjoyable celebration took place at Sassafraz in the Yorkville area of downtown Toronto. We savored the food, each other, and the passage of time. ...

 [caption id=“attachment_343” align=“aligncenter” width=“584”] Moroccan-style Birthday[/caption] My Birthday was last Wednesday and I wanted to celebrate in grand style. This birthday was special because my brother and his wife were spending it with me and they don’t come very often from Australia. I chose this Moroccan Restaurant because I had gone there before and thought it would be a suitable venue for my special day. The images in this collages were taken there. ...