Birthday reflections...

Inside every older person is a younger person - wondering what the hell happened. - Cora Harvey Armstrong

Have you ever attended a birthday party meant for others (but not you) on your actual birthday? How does it feel? When everyone (including you) will be singing a birthday song for the birthday babies, but none was directed to you?

Well, I have the privilege to experience one this year, and it's really meaningful! Really, especially when they drilled into you how much suffering your mom have to go thru in order to give you a birthday. I am the mom and the birthday girl today. So I can't help it that I was especially touched when I hear the story about the boy & the apple tree. It reminds me so much of how much sacrifice my parents have to go thru in order to give me life and the best things of life. I, in turn, did I show them enough how much I appreciated them?

When you turn thirty, a whole new thing happens: you see yourself acting like you parents. 

- Blair Sabol

It's been two years since I last talked about checkpoint. Birthdays are just checkpoint for us to know if we've done our part in life.

“And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years.”

This year, I'm no longer considered young. That reminds me that my parents are neither so - I aged with them year by year. As I grow wiser in life, have I done my part in caring for my parents and be there for them as how they have been for me all these while? Well, even if I did, I know it's never enough. I don't think I could ever repay them for all they have done. That's why this birthday, I thank them instead of waiting for them to wish me "happy birthday". I owe my birthday to them, if they have decided not to bring me to life, I won't be here today. That's why I'm especially thankful to God for giving me such loving parents and it's all the more wonderful when your parents told you that you're their best gift in their life. Well, I'm so lucky that my parents kept reminding me about this, and I felt their birthday and parent's day messages were really touching and unique - won't you agree so?

A diplomat is a man who always remembers a woman's birthday but never remembers her age. - Robert Frost