So Many Gifts

For Belle’s Birthday this year I invited a bunch of her favorite people (which, to be honest, are mostly my favorite people, too) to celebrate.
I made the little dog a platter of bacon cupcakes (“Bacon” was the theme, actually)…

and in the invite I declared that gifts were required (why kid around?)
There were, in fact, so many friends and so many gifts on the gift table…

…that not only did several guests remark that “My own birthday was nothing compared to this,” but the level of excitement resulted in Belle feeling a bit overwhelmed (with happiness, of course!)

How many gifts, after all, can a little dog really tear apart in one single day?

 
Afterwards, in discussing the details with an out-of-state friend of Belle’s, I was reminded of this wonderful poem by the Sufi Mystic Hafiz:

SO MANY GIFTS
There are so many gifts
Still unopened from your birthday,
There are so many hand-crafted presents
That have been sent to you by God.
The Beloved does not mind repeating,
“Everything I have is also yours.”
Please forgive Hafiz and the Friend
If we break into a sweet laughter
When your heart complains of being thirsty
When ages ago
Every cell in your soul
Capsized forever
Into this infinite golden sea.
Indeed,
A lover’s pain is like holding one’s breath
Too long
In the middle of a vital performance,
In the middle of one of creation’s favorite songs.
Indeed, a lover’s pain is this sleeping,
This sleeping,
When God just rolled over and gave you
Such a big good-morning kiss!
There are so many gifts, my dear,
Still unopened from your birthday.
O, There are so many hand-crafted presents
That have been sent to your life
From God.
~Hafiz
Translation Daniel Ladinsky

Lately, as I’ve been developing several new projects, one in particular has stretched me, and I will admit to many moments of feeling OVERWHELMED by all the creative possibilities in front of me.
Usually, making a list helps me, but instead I found myself making seven different lists, each of which was expanding at what seemed like a viral level, adding to the distressed feelings.
Then I realized that just as Belle has yours truly to ration out her gifts, allowing her a new toy to treasure/destroy every day, so too The Universe is willing to let me open my gifts one at a time.
I don’t have to sample everything on the buffet.
I don’t have to have all the food I intend to eat my entire life in one day.
That brought not only a sense of relief, but also a renewed sense of APPRECIATION and POSITIVE EXPECTATION for all the handcrafted presents I have before me.
I can slow down and appreciate the fact that these are indeed, unopened GIFTS….they’re mine, and waiting for me, and I can appreciate them as Belle does, one by one, all in good time.

P.S.  And for the many who keep asking me exactly how old Belle is, I have just one reply:

“A Lady Never Reveals Her Age.”

 
P.P.S.  When in doubt––and always remember that Balloon Make a Party––have a generous and glamorous friend arrive with a gifted bounty of them.