I have been favored in my life by one with whom the Lord is present and today is her birthday. A good friend once told me that I can’t really start counting my blessings unless I start with Anabelle. She spoke the truth and when I do count my blessings and start with Anabelle, I realize that my cup runneth over – with love, with blessings, with joys. I thank the Lord for this particular day for it was on this day that she came into the world, eventually to join up with mine.
When God formed me in my mother’s womb, he must have already announced then that most of my life will be spent with Anabelle. I must have been perplexed then, wondering how this would come to be for I knew no such wonderful lady. Then I totally forgot about that promise as I suffered the trauma of birth. But in his time, things began to unfold and everything fell into place and came to be fulfilled. There were many things I did not plan for in my life. I did not plan to go to San Carlos to study but that is where I was led. I did not plan to teach at Xavier School but that is where I found myself. It was there that my new boss introduced me to Anabelle – such a fortuitous confluence of events, a perfect alignment of the stars and the planets. And ever since, things have been unfolding in such an amazing way, way beyond my expectations and fondest hopes and dreams.
I do become mushy and romantic and even superstitious when I think of all that has happened in my life. But there has been so much grace and blessings and happiness in my life that ordinary language cannot quite capture nor give voice to the reality I am living. I have learned science and management and marketing and health care. But none of this knowledge or intellectual discipline provide me with the language or symbolism of what has happened and is happening in the deepest parts of me. It is my spirituality and my continuing awareness of a great Presence in my life that have enabled me to express and get in touch with my innermost being. It is world populated by angels, grace, presence, an encounter with the invisible but palpable realities, a serendipity where everything happens for a reason, presents and blessings unexpected and unmerited – pressed down, shaken, and running over.
I thank God for this day. I thank God for Anabelle’s birthday. I thank God for her presence in my life. Through her, I am more aware that God is with me, with us.
In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be
Luke 1:26-38