Conjuring a Happy Birthday

In Judaism, the number eighteen is a felicitous number.  Numbers in Hebrew are represented by letters, and the number eighteen, if read as a word, is chai, meaning life, as in L’chaim!  When making donations, or  giving bar- or bat-mitzvah gifts, Jews customarily write checks that are multiples of eighteen.

         Yesterday was my birthday, and it started well when my son called early in the morning to wish me a happy day and to point out that my age this year is a multiple of eighteen.  No wonder the day had actually become special the night before when a dear cousin had called with good wishes.  Now, the auspicious numerology gave me a sense of being afloat on the wings of good fortune. 

         I thought back to the last time I was a multiple of eighteen, and realized that year had ushered in a delightful period:  I fell madly in love and enjoyed a sustained period of spiritual depth and uplift.  That spiritual change became an integral part of me, in spite of the relationship’s recent end.

         Then I realized that this week, even before I realized I was headed for a multiple of eighteen, I was already moving toward a happy birthday.  I had rescheduled a dentist appointment for a non-birthday-day.  I had just finished and mailed invitations to an open house I am throwing next month, with the result that lots of people began telling me how happy they were to be invited.  With the dentist out of the way, I had time to have a fun lunch with some fellow writers.  Next came a phone call from my college roommate, with whom I celebrate almost simultaneous birthdays; so I shared the good news about chai with her.  And soon after that, my daughter called with birthday greetings. 

         By the time the day ended, I was fully in the swing of being a multiple of eighteen—it’s a buoyant swing to be in.