BIRTH MONTH -
February is the month of my birth, a cold, short month. My birthday, more often than not, falls during Lent, which is partly the reason I have never given up chocolate for Lent, so that I can have some chocolate cake or delight on my birthday! (Well, and if truth be told, during the rest of the season of Lent as well. We, Swiss, are not about to give up our chocolate!)
I find it most intriguing, that my calendar contains this quote from John O'Donohue, "May all that is unlived in you, blossom into a future graced with love."

In this dark night of my soul, to find this quote in the month of my birth, is as though God is speaking to my very spirit and heart. I will be holding this quote close to me, contemplating it and praying with it the rest of the year. Words of invitation to examine in this dark night and to hold onto hope for what is yet to come and be that is and will be graced with love. Words of comfort to wrap myself in when overwhelmed by the not-yetness of our lives. Words of assurance that God is in this dark night with me and leading me through it to a time to come when new life and new things, unknown at present, will grow and and be. Words of strength that pull me when I stumble and fall into ditch of discouragement and despair.
Perhaps, this is God's birthday gift to me in this dark night. Something to cling to, a word of encouragement and grace to bring me through the year and this time. It isn't much and yet it is everything. A simple quote in a calendar, randomly placed as thought by most or some, yet serendipitiously there by the grace of God in my understanding. Every little piece, every tiny glimpse, every shred of connection I see and make (by God's Spirit) will hold me to God, will I welcome into my soul and being for the grace it is - mundane, or trivial. God works in all things; great and small, serious and funny, worldly and otherworldly, permeating the material with the spiritual, making it holy by infusing God's presence into it. How can I ignore that or turn from it? I can't and so, each little scrap that speaks to me and my soul, I will honor and hold gently, for in it, I hear God, I find God's presence and it is all I have in this dark night.