Happy Birthday!

My little family has celebrated three birthdays of two-year-olds in the last week, including our son's.

Everyone knows birthdays happen once a year, to celebrate the day you were born. But besides marking a momentous occasion and counting the years of maturity, birthdays also celebrate the solar return -- the day each year when the Sun returns to the exact place it was in the sky when you were born.

The customs of gift-giving, candle-adorned cakes and "Happy Birthday" greetings are sourced in the ancient pagan belief that each birth is attended by a spirit or angel charged with guarding the new person throughout his or her life. Ancient people believed the spirit was more susceptible to influence by humans on its charge's birthday, thus they offered gifts, cakes and greetings to appease the spirit and ensure its continued protection for the loved one.

I've noticed something else on these recent birthdays as well: The celebrated child simply shines. Even our little boy, who is delightful but not usually comfortable with crowds, owned the place at his party, but not obnoxiously so; and same with the other two. Each of the three children we've celebrated this week has exuded an ineffable assurance that they are the center of the universe -- yet accompanied, somehow, by a bounteous, joyful welcome to all who entered their orbit. They had enough space, and energy, and arms for everyone who came to celebrate.

The fire atop the birthday cake reflects the glow of the Sun that returns on this day. It's as if the center of the life of the world -- the Sun, the bringer of light, the marker of day and night, the source of energy and nourishment and inspiration -- is paying a special visit to the center of the family's life, the child who brings light, energy and inspiration to each day. These two energies coming together align the universe's intentions with that of the child, and the child feels "in her element," that the world reflects her very soul, that her wish on the candles will come true -- because how could it not, in a world with a Sun that kisses her soul?

(Photo credit)