Overwhelmed....

                Joy is the best makeup!
                                  -Anne Lamott

I am almost never speechless, however it's hard to put my birthday into words. I'll try to be concise. Two words.
         
                              Overwhelming JOY! 

I felt seen and loved and cared about. Bert brought a bouquet of roses to me in the middle of my first class (the women in the class all went..."Ahhhhh.") Three of the officers in the college club I help to co-advise came to my classroom to wash the walls and take out the staples. It's a long story, but it was an act of selfless love.

                               I just couldn't stop smiling. 
               I felt so blessed and cared about and overwhelmed.

At a meeting with students there was a surprise birthday celebration, complete with a birthday cake made with
Seahawk's colors. On the weekend, a wonderful dinner out with Bert and seeing the movie Unbroken. Cards and love and gift certificates. Once again, overwhelm struck me, almost like a river that is so full that the water will start to overflow the banks. It startled me to feel this way so I spent a few moments on my own thinking and praying and taking in what was going on inside me and outside me and for me. Finally I came to the conclusion that...

          The overwhelm was trying to really get that all of these
            people loved me just like I loved them!               

Hearing a male college student of mine get chocked up in talking about me...well it all just undid me. When I got home I cried and cried.

It's truly very comfortable for me to give that kind of love, the kind that embraces who someone is. It's easy to let them know how much they mean to me. However it's not as easy to let in that the feeling is reciprocated. In Mat's talk he said the students loved me with  their whole hearts. That's exactly how I feel about them. Just knowing that, hearing that and seeing that was almost more than my heart could take.

And then, on top of all that love, on Sunday my family had a brunch with grand babies and daughters and family... more love to soak in. It all had me grinning from ear-to-ear.

It reminded me how much it matters to just remember people and tell them you love them. That's the greatest birthday gift of all.

And finally, when I read my sweet hubby's card, I couldn't hold back the tears. The message so simple and from his heart. It said...

       "You are the best thing that ever happened to me."

And Bert meant it. Sometimes it just sneaks up on me, that overwhelm, that sense of what did I ever do to be so blessed?
I often feel that same feeling at church or during my prayer time when I take in how much God loves me, just as I am.
I am blessed beyond measure not because of material things, but because I am dearly loved by God and the precious people in my life.

On my birthday I felt just plain happy. Deeply satisfied and gleeful. Happy from my toes to the top of my head. Everyone kept saying, "You look so pretty today!" No wonder. As Anne Lamott says,

                      Joy is the best makeup!

God bless!
Love you to the moon and back!
Linda