The Personal Celebration

I’m not a big celebration type person. Although I like to celebrate something even simple, but I’m not the one with birthday celebration that involves hundreds of people. I cannot imagine a wedding celebration in such scale either. I like to celebrate things personally: with myself and/or with loved one(s). And my celebration doesn’t necessary involve a decorated cake either. A nice gesture is enough.

I know people who simply don’t remember her/his birthday. They just don’t register the day. About birthday, I thought it’s nice to pick a day in a year for a personal celebration. Don’t have to be with others, celebrating with self should be nice enough. Like new year for all, birthday is very personal. We take time to make resolution, like new year, after reviewing what we have achieved the past year. Nice personal contemplation.

Nowadays, I don’t celebrate someone’s birthday big because I learn less and less people care about their birthday and the celebration. I don’t want to appear extravaganza then, or to be precise, I don’t know how to act. I used to enjoy sending bouquet, cake, and small gift but often I felt the awkward response of the recipient that drove me to the same awkward. Like oops.. So I plan less and less. It’s bad I know, like degrading in attention. I still keep a birthday list though. Thank goodness, now we have short text message that sends smile across oceans.

My Sister and one of my childhood friends still send snail birthday card with stamp that takes two weeks to arrive my address. I feel so embarrassed to do less what they do to me for years. They are my reminder. They have reminded me to keep celebrating important dates that I managed to do sometimes. To be frank, I always have in my new year resolution to return doing this area ritually. I’m not yet succeeded.

Like my slogan, I just do my part. I have tried to remove my awkward feeling. Often my male friends responded Your text arrived before my wife said something about today. Ugh. Ana, my Ubud driver, told me last week that only me and his ex girlfriend who sent text message on his birthday. His wife didn’t even remember. See, I don’t know how to act then. Am I in the wrong decision?

It’s just nice to ponder things like this. New year is approaching. Time to decide which habit to keep, which to discard. I can only ponder this for myself. Birthday is like recalling nice moments. Some people don’t like to recall, and as for me, I like to recall -- to cherish the nice moments. I have learned to shred off not nice moments from my memory so can live with Now, but nice memories? That makes my life today. Anyway, like celebrating birthday/anniversary, people have different level of importance. So I better keep my radar on to know how I should act.

I celebrated my life very well today. I went motorbiking with Mbo Yan to Singapadu village, near the silver village Celuk. She took me to silversmith specializes in silver beads she knows personally. Yes, the price is cheaper than of shops in the main road but the variety is also limited. I scavenged from excess stock and order samples. Actually I was half an hour late. They just melted many kilograms of single beads when I arrived but I don’t want to regret. I just said to myself that the beads are not meant for me. I’m happy with whatever I got.

The day was hot. I was well covered, jacket and helmet. Mbo Yan drove half the speed she used to. That’s fine. Balinese drive very fast. I care about their safety considering many dogs in the street. I enjoyed the riding through narrow alleys in the village. Village in Bali is different than in Java. In Bali, a village can appear so quiet, like hardly one around. And, noticeably clean. So nice and quiet. I asked Mbo Yan to stop in front of an old Pura Desa. I liked to feel the magic of a big beringin, the old pura, and the quietness.

Now I know at least three better places to get things I need. Doing business is challenging. But fun, for me. It’s so nice to wake up in the morning anticipating a challenging day. This is what I always dreamed in the past, and still… I’m happy.

Mbo Yan took me to her house as we passed where she lives. I’m happy to have a chance to meet the family in the compound. The twin sisters played in front yard under mango tree where I took pictures of the family. The other two older siblings were still in school. This is friend I don’t want to exchange with anything. Worth celebrated :-)

Photo of Mbo Yan and family in her house.