Birthdays are a magnificent time. It is as though a renewal has occurred-perhaps a renewal to life. Recently a family member had a birthday, and another family member sent flowers from a far distance--across the sea. Below are the flowers which brighten up our room today with their birthday cheer. They are beautiful, they are bright, they are a message that life continues and moves on, and we celebrate. They carry a message of love and good cheer which transcends all distances and time.

"Sooner or later we all discover that the important moments in life are not the advertised ones, not the birthdays, the graduations, the weddings, not the great goals achieved. The real milestones are less prepossessing. They come to the door of memory unannounced, stray dogs that amble in, sniff around a bit and simply never leave. Our lives are measured by these."--Susan B. Anthony

"Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting; The soul that rises with us, our life's star, Hath had elsewhere its setting, And cometh from afar; Not in entire forgetfulness, And not in utter nakedness, But trailing clouds of glory do we come from God, who is our home" - WILLIAM WORDSWORTH