# Oct 8, 2023 By [Ram](https://paragraph.com/@ram008) · 2023-10-09 --- A special day for me and my little son, another year. But who is really counting? We both had an awesome day full of wishes from near and dear. A cake cutting, some resolutions, good food, laughs, and sweets. Makes for a complete day. Celebrations will follow at school and with friends. This year the little one will have had 4 different days to celebrate and of course, he deserves it and more! Covid has stolen a few years from him where we were unable to do anything from years 6-8. So, 9 and 10 have to make up for it. He is fond of being celebrated, much as I was in my childhood. What was different today was, that I took my birthday off social media partly as an experiment to see how many actually remember my birthday without reminders from the network and the other was to keep it small and private from here on. Life is too short and gone are the days of feeling happy to get 100 people posting on my wall and replying patiently to each one with comments. Now it is more about quality over quantity and depth over width. It actually felt good. On one hand, I spent much fewer hours on my special day checking and responding to notifications for one or two posts every 10 minutes. The other is that it felt kind of liberating to have fewer high-quality conversations. Another thing that happened on this birthday is that I really felt celebrated and felt a dose of hope for humanity even in the darkest of times. I felt and liked the kindness of a few people who genuinely and deeply cared. They took pains to pay attention to the details and did something very meaningful. This has not happened to me on any of my birthdays in the past 15 or 20 years. Besides these kind moments to cherish, I also enjoyed watching India win at the World Cup opening game after being down early. This was an added bonus that made the day special. I made a few resolutions, which to me are tough given how the years have rolled. Less snacking on junk savories, no afternoon naps, limit coffee and daily intake. My son had similar resolutions, swap out the savories for a better attitude and limited temper. He has been working very hard on it. God’s gift is our ability to share this special day and we will cherish this for as long as he has destined it. Time with our kids is so fleeting and they grow up before we realize it. Can’t be more reminded of this than in the horrific events emerging out of the perennially high-tension Gaza Strip. Praying for peace to be restored and heartbreaking to see so many civilians impacted. **Dwelling in memories of the past and the illusions of the future** - reflecting back and forward. Back, today, the memory of my birthdays took me back to Kuwait, on my 10th birthday where we had a big party at home, an awesome cake shaped like a house with a deer outside it. Unfortunately, the pictures which were developed from a Kodak 36 photo film were lost in the war. But the memories are vivid and hope they will remain here to keep us fresh. Looking ahead, I can’t imagine what birthdays will look like 20 years from now. Will they be celebrated by robots singing to us, showing holograms of our friends who are anywhere in the world? Will there be a cake anymore? Until next time… --- *Originally published on [Ram](https://paragraph.com/@ram008/oct-8-2023)*