Happy Birthday Patrick!

My little light bearer has turned over from measuring time by months to measuring it by years. Thus continues his march through time as we know it, marking each year with a celebration.
We celebrated your birthday, Patrick. The goal was to make you happy, and honor you, but as always you have honored us by your presence, and watching you has made us happy. I think babies can just naturally live out the concept that it is more blessed to give than to receive. We concentrate our efforts on giving to you, and making the day special, and you just toddle about in our midst, bringing joy wherever you go.

There is nothing quite like a child, and you are a precious child. We work and contrive to accomplish, you just are, and in that simple, childlike faith and trust, you show us that all our wisdom is so small - you have the secret to happiness, which is to quietly trust those who love you and are committed to caring for you. I suppose there are benefits of growing up and becoming more accomplished at verbalizing all our lofty thoughts.....it will be nice when hunger and discomfort are met with requests instead of screams, so we can't just throw maturity out the window, but there is a loss of innocence as we mature and become more complicated. I can see well why God said, Let the little children come unto me, for thus is the kingdom of heaven. Who could question that the essence of the kingdom of heaven is not our wisdom, but His, which is based on simple trust in Him. And yet, we spend a lifetime philosophising, and building theories, and becoming so complicated that we forget what joy there is in simplicity.

I love to watch you, in the midst of all our attempts to bring joy to your life - it sometimes distracts you from your main purpose, but it is never long until your little eyes seek out the face of your parents, and it is then, upon finding them, that joy fills your countenance - and you are at rest. Truly the essence of life is not the abundance of things, but in having someone who truly loves us, and with whom we can walk worry free, because we trust them completely.

It is my hope that you don't experience enough disillusionment in your little life to rob you of the simple trust I see reflected in your face, and that your trust grows versus being replaced with disappointment. Thank you for teaching us secrets of happy living. You are one of my greatest treasures in this life, and I love you...............Happy first Birthday, Patrick!