A parable: A man stood at the bottom of a mountain and looked up to the top where a hermit lived. For six days the man climbed over rocks, trudged through valleys, and leaped across fissures. On the end of the sixth day he reached the top. The man asked the hermit, “What is the meaning of life?”. The hermit, wise and ancient, thought on this for a moment and replied, “When you learn why you are here on this mountain, you will have your answer”. “I don’t understand, what do you mean?” questioned the man, annoyed that he had traveled so far for such a simple answer. In response the old hermit said, “You’ll have to figure it out on your own. Next time, just text me, it would be much easier for you.”.
If you’re like Nina, at this point you can skip to the end of the post to read what I meant by that parable before continuing on. Back? Great. This is the annual birthday post for our dear Ashlyn, and it was a fun weekend with many more picture than I can post here. It started on Friday, which was her actual birthday. We started by opening a few birthday presents. Our shy little daughter actually opened some gifts and had fun since it was just us. That was not to be repeated at her actual party of course.
As has become tradition at the Flinn house, it was off to the zoo on Ashlyn’s birthday to go see the animals. We realized after the trip that we didn’t take near as many pictures as we had in the past, I guess that happens after you’ve been there each year for three years. This marked the first time we went as a family of four, and the last time that Ashlyn will be able to go to the zoo for free.
After we got back from the zoo it was time to get busy making the cakes. Ashlyn enjoyed working with mom to make the cupcakes, and Grandma came over after Ashlyn went to bed to help. It was good that she did, they were up until almost 11 getting the icing on everything.
The result of all the work were some awesome looking cupcakes, a funny vegetable tray, and something we affectionately named “Special Elmo”.
The party was the next day, and Ashlyn was so excited she couldn’t nap. We were afraid that it would make her grumpy, but we didn’t have anything to worry about. She had a great time with the family and our house the next day looked like a herd of pre-schoolers had tore through the house based on all the toys everywhere. From hungry hungry hippos, to card games, to cupcake making kits, to funny wearable animals, it was everywhere. Thank you so much to everyone who came by and celebrated with us, Ashlyn loved it.
It’s amazing when you think about how unlikely we all are to be where we are today. As Bill Bryson said, “Consider the fact that for 3.8 billion years, a period of time older than the Earth’s mountains and rivers and oceans, not one of your pertinent ancestors was squashed, devoured, drowned, starved, stranded, stuck fast, untimely wounded, or otherwise deflected from its life’s quest to find the right partner at the right moment in order to perpetuate the only possible sequence of hereditary combinations that could result, eventually, astoundingly, in you.”.
The next result of those 3.8 billion years, plus 3 more, is Ashlyn. All the choices that we, our parents, and their relatives back through time made have led to her being here. If we had any doubts about the decisions we made, it takes one look at her for us to realize they were all good.
So Happy Birthday little one, for showing us what the meaning of life really is. We love you.