Glorious happenstance…

Over two years since the last blog post I feel the urge to put fingertip to keyboard once again. Perhaps it is the inevitable thought-provokingness of a birthday that triggers this urge? Or maybe it is the creative beauty of Autumnal light freckling my lounge walls with gold splashes that prompt my desire to write? Is it more likely the procrastination of a university lecturer with assignments to mark? Whatever the inspiration, here are the words…

Last week it was my birthday. I love birthdays. Other people’s birthdays that is. I love the opportunity to celebrate the life of someone with gifts, nights out, cake and candles. My own birthday, however, is another matter. I don’t like celebrating my birthday at all – I am uncomfortable with the fuss and expectation of the day and will try to find any excuse to downplay it. Perhaps the fact that with each birthday I hurtle ever closer to the half-century has something to do with it too!
Here’s what happened on my birthday last week:

After a morning teaching, my mum and I went for lunch at the perfectly named ‘Sea-Lane Cafe’ on Goring beach.The clear blue sky was full of a rainbow of kites dragging the surfers through the waves below, the kites skitting across the sky seemed to move in time with the excited tumble of seagulls and the laser beam sunshine lit up everything like a camera flash.

It was glorious.

The Sea-Lane cafe is a popular meeting place and as usual, the tables were pretty full up but we found one table with two seats spare for us, so we sat sharing the space with a couple who were enjoying a cup of tea and a slice of cake. After a couple of awkward ‘lovely place here isn’t it?’  exchanges we discovered that not only was our table companion sharing his birthday with me that day but that he was just visiting his family in Goring and that he was actually from Essex. ‘Really?’ we said, ‘whereabouts?’ It turned out, much to our amazement, that we had lived in the same town in Essex and that I had been in the same school class as his daughter 30 years ago. Much incredulous reminiscing about old school friends ensued. Bearing in mind that we were in a beach cafe on the south coast 70 miles from Essex, we couldn’t quite believe the coincidence of us being sat together that day of all days. And in some inexplicable, life-affirming way,  sharing stories and memories of the past only served to encourage us to tell each other how grateful we were for the passing of time and the blessing of the present.

I don’t know whether this gentleman enjoys celebrating birthdays or not, but I like to think that perhaps, like me, he felt that this particular birthday included a little extra surprise of glorious happenstance orchestrated just for us.