A Quarantine Birthday

How would I honestly describe my birthday during the pandemic? Not how I described it to others the next day who inquired, “How was your birthday?”  How would I describe it in my personal journal with one word? INCONVENIENCE.

            My baggy-eyed husband had been working himself to the bone keeping our three-year-old during the day.  He makes sure my son gets all his teletherapy sessions, is fed, and entertained.  He works during my son’s nap.  When I get home from work, we eat dinner, then he goes upstairs to the mancave to work online, usually until midnight.  So I felt that my birthday just meant more work for his already weary soul.  He needed to be the one to sleep in on Saturday, not me!  INCONVENIENCE.

            My sweet parents brought me peanut butter pie, presents, balloons, and orange Gerber daisies.  It was so touching the way they worked to make my birthday special.  However, I felt stressed and torn between the opposite ends of the quarantine safety spectrum.  I could have told my parents not to come at all as my husband and I decided not to expose my 80-year-old father with a heart attack history to any germs I may have picked up at my workplace.  Also, we didn’t want to expose my son who was born with a heart defect to any germs my parents may have picked up at their workplaces.  This decision would have pleased my husband, kept us safe, yet hurt my parents.  Or we could have allowed my parents in our home, ignoring warnings, fears, and precautions weighing on our hearts.  So, peacemaker that I try to be, I set up two separate blankets on our driveway and tried in vain to keep six feet between my family members as my son and my parents moved about chasing run away balloons in the windy spring weather.  I felt stress as something was again out of my control, knowing that I wasn’t pleasing anyone completely, and that my loved ones had gone through so much trouble.  INCONVENIENCE.

            We drove 30 minutes that night to eat out with my best friend.  I called the restaurant ahead of time to ask, “So, how does this work?”  I hadn’t eaten “out” in over two months.  We called in our orders and arrived in separate cars.  We were approached by a masked server who took our name, brought the food, and took the money, all from the safety of our car.  We ate out in a shopping center courtyard, making sure our lawn chairs were a safe distance from each other.  I remember saying, “I feel human again,” dining and socializing with friends.  My son was an angel except for the end of the night when he started sticking his hand in the fountain, and it started overflowing after he turned the sprayer or broke it for all I knew.  Thank goodness, my friend’s husband was able to correct the sprayer on the fountain.  While her husband was working on the fountain, the police officer on duty at the shopping center stopped by to see what was happening and to inform us that loitering was not allowed during this time of the pandemic.  He had seen us, but he had let it slide.  INCONVENIENCE.

            Despite my feelings and the strange circumstances, I had a wonderful birthday because I had so many funny memories and sweet people that care.  I had to battle the inconvenient feelings and enjoy the celebrating, as different as it was.  I had to battle my grumpy ‘tude with gratitude.  I’m having to do that a lot lately.  And I read a message from my Creator.  I read Psalm 91:15. It says God “will deliver him and honor him.”  I looked up the Hebrew word for honor.  It means “be important, glory.”  The basic noun formed from the root means “interior, soul.”  So my birthday interpretation of that is “God thinks I am important in His inmost being.”  And that’s a pretty special birthday greeting card message.