18th December
Today is my Mum's birthday - that's her on her wedding day to my Dad many moons ago, her eyes so beautiful, young and full of hope for her future no doubt.
Mum's not that much into her own birthday to be honest, preferring not to make a fuss, yet always made a big deal of ours. Today is the day I would always try to make it home for Christmas for, no matter where in the world I was, if I was coming home for Christmas I'd be sure to arrive before or on the 18th of December.
One of my favourites, was the year I told my family I'd be staying in New York again that Christmas and wouldn't make it home. On the qt, my cousin picked me up from the airport and I called my folks from a private number telling them all about how cold it was in the big apple, how busy my bar job was and that we were spending Christmas day in Brooklyn at a friend's apartment.
In reality I was home in Kerry and stalked my Mum to her local hair salon! Mid colour I walked in to wish her happy birthday! The look on her face made all the secrecy worth it! After my Dad clutched his chest in the farmyard that year from the shock of seeing me emerge from behind a wall having not seen him in over two years, I thought it might be best to limit the ambushes! Though I think I pulled off one or two more after!
In later years, I was still working through to the twenty-somethingth of December but I always tried to make the drive home the weekend before the 18th or on the day to have cake together. To mark the occassion for my Mum as she did for us in our younger years. Now our family has grown, our brother-in-law to be stands alongside my sister and their two little boys (my nephews) hold court for all cakes! Yesterday evening they jostled on my Mum's knee for the candle blowing / sending showers of spittle on the cake, yelling cheeezzze!
Days of significance hold connections, memories and ground us in time, providing opportunities for reflection, for gathering and perhaps for celebrating too.
We are just a few days away now from the 21st December too, the Winter Solstice. It was a day of huge significance in the Celtic calendar of old. A time to pause and reflect on the darker time of the year to date and look forward to the return of the light, to celebrate the turn of the year and an end to the darker half. For me that's what The Solstice symbolises now - a link to our past, to those who’ve gone before, a more nature-led way of living and a waymarker on this path I’m walking. It’s a reminder of simpler times and an invitation to acknowledge where and who I am and the abundance I have in my life. A celebration that slowly day, by day, the days will get brighter and longer and I cling to this through early Spring particularly when the weather is at its harshest and I long for warmth and light.
And if you see my Mum about, wish a happy birthday won’t you?! :)