The Best. Birthday.......Ever!

My final thought before sleep overtook me last night? " I wish it was this time last week..." Last Wednesday night, just before bedtime, College boy came bounding in the house, and, thanks to his Fall Break, I fell asleep to the beautiful sound of him playing his guitar (College boy is a very accomplished guitarist, owing to the fact that he was a Classical Guitar Major at our arts based High School) - the perfect gift, as the midnight hour struck, ushering in my Birthday. Thursday morning, we were up at Dark Thirty to pack the car. Thanks to the generosity of some beachfront condo owning friends, we were off on a roadtrip, for some much needed family time and some sand between our toes! The next four days were heaven on earth - all five of us together, perfect October beach weather ( Cool and breezy), and all the Balcony sitting, coffee drinking, ocean watching I could stand. Throw in some long walks, hot tub time, low tide fishing and homemade cinnamon rolls and you have the BEST. BIRTHDAY. EVER! As I walked the beach alone one afternoon, I remembered another walk, on another beach.....The summer I was 22, I performed at a theatre on the Coast. I was playing Luisa in The Fantastiks, loved my fellow cast members, and even had a boyfriend (who happened to own the theatre) who would take me sailing on his 72 foot sailing yacht (The Wind Drifter), and present me with a nightly bottle of Dom Perignon (Don't judge....) - let's just say that the living that summer was easy.....but I was miserable....Soul weary and bone lonely. We spent many of our afternoons pre-show at the beach (Where I fell asleep one afternoon, and suffered the worst sun burn of my life, but that's another story....), and on one such afternoon, I decided to walk alone - pouring my misery out to God. I walked, and talked, and walked and talked - praying for an end to the desperate loneliness that I had felt since the night my Mother died, right after my 18th birthday. I came to a deserted spot on the beach (unusual for high summer), a sunbeam broke at that very moment through the overcast sky, and there in the middle of the pool of sun was one whole sand dollar. Large and perfect and shiny white....and as I picked it up, God's promise to me seared me to my very core...He promised me that I would not always be alone - that I would once again know the wholeness - the completeness - the love of a family....I held on to that promise, and to that Sand Dollar, and the day that I met John, I somehow knew that God's promise to me was on it's way to being fulfilled. Back to last week....As I walked along the Beach, seeing John and the kids fishing out on the sandbar, I gave thanks to the God that blessed me with my hearts desire. Our lives together have not always been easy, and our family is taking on a new form, as people grow up and go....but my heart is whole, and full of my family....God's promise for my life....and there you have it, some 30 years later......the best. birthday. ever.