Carousel

(I'm the chubby one in the middle. My older bro is starting the party early and my little sis is getting all the attention. Some things never change.)

It was my birthday this week. No surprise that at my age, it can be a bittersweet moment. It’s always good to rejoice in another year of living, but subtracting my birth year from the current year is not always the kind of math I look forward to. I must admit that I felt a sense of nostalgia this time around as I reminisced on birthdays gone by.

I am from a family that takes a less than festive approach to birthdays. The obligatory Happy Birthday greetings were always stated and a favorite meal was prepared. Gifts and grand parties, however, were not on the radar. I guess our large family could be given a party status on size alone, so why waste time with outside invitations and other frou-frou?

One birthday treat we did receive was a made-from-scratch angel food cake. Twelve egg whites, beaten to just the right consistency with a little sugar and flour, were transformed into a light- as-a-cloud delicacy. This was our treasured luxury. And as if the sweet treat was not enough, my mother placed little cardboard carousel figures around the perimeter of the cake as a nod to the joy of a child’s birthday.

Last year a couple of my sisters took me out for lunch and throughout the meal it was evident that they had bigger and better things in store. There was much tee-heeing and “you just waits” as I squirmed through my meal, wondering if things were going to get embarrassing or just plain fun. As we left the restaurant, my sibs had all they could do not to break out into a full sprint toward the surprise awaiting me in the car. They reached into the back seat and pulled out an angel food cake and, you guessed it, the cake was surrounded by the little carousel figures. In that moment, I was profoundly struck by the fact that a few inexpensive equine cut-outs is sometimes all it takes to make one feel very special indeed.

Ode to the Birthday Cake                                         

The horse on the carousel

Spends hours chasing its tail

Up and down and all around

Spinning in a motion so slow

Never knowing when it will be

Time to stop

Or time to go.

(Thanks for stopping by on my birthday week.)