sadie's birthday {pt. 1}

september 11th
happens to be my youngest sister's birthday.

it's been hard for her over the years.
a lot of people,
mostly people we don't know,
have given us a hard time for being celebratory on her birthday.

she was 6 years old when the terrorist attacks happened.
we still went out to celebrate her birthday,
much to the dismay of the community.

people were giving us awful looks
and offering their judgmental opinions
because we were going out to play on such a sad day.

it's been hard.
when sadie gets asked when her birthday is,
she replies and gets "oh my gosh that's so sad! do you not celebrate it anymore?"

silly people.

we recognize the horrifying events that occurred ten years ago.
but it's also the day sadie joined our family.
and we love her.
and birthdays are awesome.

i, personally, have a hard time with the way september 11th is treated.
it's become something so....
fabricated and icky.

to me.

but that's another day...

BACK to sadie's birthday.
this year twas her 16th birthday.
it fell on a sunday,
so we just kind of chilled out.

did the cake thing.
did the presents thing.
played games.

poster i made for sadie's wall. she's an HP fuhREAK. it's kind of annoying :)

sade wanted to head down to tuacahn
to see little mermaid,
since it's her favorite disney movie.

let me just tell you.
i. am. obsessed.

more on that later....

but

i love birthdays.
they're some of the best days of the year.
i think that though awful things have happened,
life still gives us a reason to celebrate.

the day you receive a big promotion could also be the day another lost a job. 
the day you get married is also the day someone lost a mother or father.
the day your child is born is also the day someone loses a child.

days themselves work as placemarkers in life,
anniversaries,
milestones.
it is not the day itself that is condemned or celebrated.
it's the events surrounding it.

i think about this everyday.
i look out my window at my tiny little neighborhood
and wonder what tragedies have befallen a family in india today,
what babies have been born to families in australia,
what simple things couples are fighting over in canada,
and what joys the day brings to someone in spain.

i know what is filling my soul today.

i know that september fourteenth is not circled on my calendar.
in the history of me, september fourteenth has little significance.
but it's someone's birthday.
it's someone's anniversary.
someone is having a party today.
someone is in a fight with their spouse that will change their relationship.
someone got in an accident.

someone will die today.

someone, somewhere is waiting to welcome their baby into the world.
and still
someone, somewhere is just struggling to study for their calculus test.

for me,
september fourteenth is just another day.
another opportunity to live.

there will be days where just breathing is enough,
those where breathing itself cannot seem to rid you of the debacles in which you are entangled,
those where screaming seems to be the most respectable thing you are capable of,
and where singing is the most fluid and real thing to come from your mouth.

these little numbers,
these things on our calendars,
these things we call days, where the sun rises and the sun sets
and everything in between leaves imprints on us,
they're... in the end...
just another day.


life is funny like that.