Kaarawan

“There are two most powerful days in your life: the day you’re born, and the day you discover why.”

I am not a big fan of birthday celebrations. I don’t take the effort to throw parties after parties or even invite loads of people to join me in celebrating my big day.

I never had a debut (the biggest birthday celebration when you turn 18), I don’t do something very extravagant or out-of-the-box either. I am contented to know that I, once again, have gone a year older and wiser and I’m happy to share this moment of pure happiness with my family and close friends.

But I got used to having surprises here and there. I got used to discovering that circles of friends want to celebrate it even more than I do. I got used to being extremely surprised and at the same time thankful that I got friends like them who spend a lot of time planning my birthday for me.

Though I have to admit this isn’t something I pre-empt, I just know that in every birthday, something very special always happen.

I celebrated my birthday inside my French Class and spent the rest of it writing in a church.

I decided to go to the church that’s so familiar but forgotten. I decided to go back after 15 years of indifference. I decided to see whether I still feel connected to what I just used to see in my dreams (literally). And I thought, the perfect time for me to go back is on my birthday.

It was a place where my family and I used to visit as a Holy Week thing where the only memory I have are the hundreds of pilgrims walking and hours of traffic and impatience.

I went there surprised to find out that what used to be a four hour drive is just an hour commute now. I was surprised that it looks very familiar yet the feeling I was expecting has been long gone. But I decided to stay anyway.

Few people were praying inside the church. A family was chatting rather loudly in front of the Grotto. A handful of men were lining up to get some miraculous water and some were scattered along the vastness of the garden.

I chose to stay on the side of the church facing a backyard where two young men were busy getting some woods. It was an afternoon full of writing, reading, pausing, watching the piles of woods get higher and higher and seeing how the rain pours then stops, giving space for the sun to shine.

And that’s it. Birthday’s finished.

No surprise roses and cakes, no big parties, no nothing. Just a golden opportunity to thank God, write and be with my family.

But surprises come in different forms, true magic appears out of the ordinary and gifts are given unexpectedly.

I’d like to leave this story hanging to give space for mystery. I just know that I received the biggest gift God could ever give: Knowing the WHY, Meeting the WHO, Looking forward to WHEN, doing the HOW and being WHERE I should be.

The video below tells that he discovered why he was born when he stood up alone. But I discovered mine when I decided to journey with people.