Greetings to our family in Ethiopia.
Yes, I said family, because I feel like these letters we are exchanging with each other are helping us to know each other closely, and cherish each other more fully. I enjoy the messages we receive from you, and I love the videos that show your smiles and joy. You shared a video with us about your birthday celebrations, and it looked like so much fun. There was singing, special food, and a true effort to make the birthday of your brothers and sisters a special day.
Here in Canada, I celebrated my 61st birthday in the month of March. I know it might sound silly, but I remember when I was young like most of you are now, I believed 61 years old was a very, very old age. Now, of course, I try hard not to imagine this as old as it sounded to me when I was 12 years old. I don’t feel old after 61 years of living. I feel grateful. I can share with you that it is a great privilege to grow old. There are many, many obstacles and illnesses that can cut our lives short, so every day that grows into a month, that grows into a year, that takes us to ‘old age’ is truly a blessing.
As children in Canada, our birthdays were often celebrated with a birthday party, much like the one I saw you holding. The benefit you all have is your birthday party guests are living right there with you. If you are a shy child, like I was when I was younger, the most difficult part of holding a birthday party was finding people to invite to the party. There would be people we know from our schools, or from our churches, or from our athletic practices. I played on baseball teams since the age of 6, so some of my friends were only known to me through my sports. You can imagine how difficult it would be to hand out invitations to a party, then to worry and worry if anyone would want to come to celebrate with you. Of course, there were always children who accepted the invitation, so all that worry was really unneeded. I am still trying to learn about the dangers of worrying too much. I think some of us worry more than others. Do any of you worry a lot?
Mother and father and other family members would often decorate the house with balloons and streamers, trying to make the house seem festive. Usually we were asked to dress up in our best clothing for our party, which often meant putting on our clothes reserved for church or school. Often each child would wear a birthday hat. The balloons were so fun to bat around at each other at the end of the day. Our birthday parties often included some games. One popular game was called, “Pin the Tail On The Donkey”. Now, don’t worry my friends, we didn’t actually bring a real donkey into the house. This game involved a very large picture hung on the wall of a donkey that had no tail. Each child was given a long strip of paper with a tail painted on it. One by one, the children were blind-folded, then spun in a tight circle, around and around, then stopped just in time to be facing the picture of the donkey, still blind-folded and now a bit dizzy. The goal of the child was to approach the donkey hanging on the wall, and attach the strip of paper with the image of a tail as close to where it was supposed to go on a real, live donkey. We all know, that would be the donkey’s rump. Everyone in the room would cheer and laugh as the blind-folded player would end up with a tail stuck to the donkey’s nose, or the donkey’s belly. The winner of the game was the person who got the tail closest to the proper location at the rear end. Do you play a game like this one in Ethiopia?
In Canada, the season of the year has a big impact on the kinds of activities you could hold during your party. If your birthday was in the winter months, and there was snow on the ground, you could do things like build a snowperson, or go sledding down the park hills on toboggans and sleds. If your birthday was in the summer months, you might be able to go to a swimming pool and splash and swim in the pool with your friends. Springtime is so close to my birthday that indoor games were the best choice. It rains a lot in springtime to melt the winter snow and help our flowers to grow. It can be quite muddy outside in the spring and often still quite cold.
The next part of the party was opening the gifts your friends may have brought you. This was often fun and full of surprises. To be honest, I enjoyed the play time far more than gift opening. Next came the birthday cake. Sometimes mother or father would have baked the cake right at home, and other times a special cake would be ordered from a bakery. I loved chocolate cake with chocolate and pink icing. On top of the cake were the exact number of candles that matched your birthday. So, if you were turning 10 years old, the cake would have 10 candles. The tiny candles were made of wax, and had a wick inside them. Each candle would be set afire with a match, and the glow from the burning candles would light up the room. Mother or father would turn the lights out in the room to really make the burning candles glow. Your friends and family would sing the song, “Happy Birthday To You”, and just at the right moment, you would do your best to blow out all the candles at once. It didn’t happen often, but now and again, a trick candle would be added to the cake that could not be blown out, no matter how hard you tried. Everyone always laughed when that happened. You could blow and blow, but that candle would not go out.
Let me tell you my friends, when you are turning 61 years old, you really do not want to try to blow out that many candles in one breath. Try to picture 61 candles burning at once. Wow, that’s a lot of light, and a big cake. Cake and icecream and treats were shared by everyone, and then your friends would go home so you could finally really look at the gifts you received. My favourite gift was art supplies, because I love to draw and paint.
Receiving gifts is very nice, but perhaps a better feeling comes from watching someone else receive a gift you have given to them. You know my friends, I have learned that the true value of a gift is not in how much it costs to purchase, but in how much love and thought that has gone into it. For example, if you know your good friend loves the colour yellow, perhaps a special gift is to find a yellow flower you could pick to give them (always making sure you have permission to pick this flower, of course), or you could draw a yellow flower on paper and present it to them. If your friend seems sad about something, perhaps the best gift you can give them is to get them to laugh at something silly you do. Always remember that gifts come in many, many forms, and the best ones can not be purchased in a store. You children bless me every time you send us a letter. It is a gift I treasure each time I read it.
This year I will celebrate my 61st birthday by spending time with my dear friends, and maybe having a special meal at a restaurant so that I don’t have to cook for myself. I will go for a walk in the woods to smell the fresh cool spring air and watch the flowers trying to push up from the warming forest floor. The singing birds might inspire me to sing some songs and play my Ukulele. I think that sounds like a perfect day.
Happy Birthday to all my friends in Ethiopia. You are loved by so many people here in Canada. You are a gift to all of us.
Patti