East Bay
Turing 1 is a big deal. When you’re about to turn 1, people still call you a baby. After you turn 1, you’re a one-year-old.
It’s a significant transition for parents, as it often suddenly dawns on them how fast their baby is growing up. It’s a reason for adults to celebrate life, really, since the kids would eat a cupcake any day of the week it’s handed to them, regardless of the occasion.
And, it’s also a wonderful reason to dote on those little ones we adore, the perfect excuse to shower our affection on our beloveds. Maybe the most important quality in the whole world about babies is how they inspire us to love. To give freely and generously of ourselves, without a thought of getting anything in return. To discover the capacity of our hearts is far more vast than we imagined.
We know, inherently, that as kids grow up, it becomes harder to strike that balance between guiding them in the ways of the world, and trusting them and the love they inspire to carry them through life. Birthdays are both a celebration of that love, and a reminder of it — hopefully as adults we can keep honoring their perspective, keep allowing them to show us how to love.
What is the significance of this day? Will it be the last time we smile and laugh as they smash food all over themselves? Or, will it be one of the many millions of times we think, “Oh, this darling being. How she makes me see all that I don’t know.”
So often we don’t know the significance of any day, of any moment, until we look back on it from some future point in time. Our present quests for improvement sometimes mask what is perfectly delightful about this moment. You can’t help but grow up. But right now is pretty amazing, too.
