Five today! (Les dates anniversaires)

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It's Julian's birthday today. Hard to credit that five years have gone by: a scrap of early middle age for me, an unremarkable quinquennium for the world, a whole lifetime for him. My raison d'être—these three children, each providing their own annual well-spaced milestone (January, June, November), measuring out our lives together. Birthdays mean more than presents and cake*, or the mere passing of time, as Yves Duteil points out in his beautiful song Les dates anniversaires: they connect us those we love, wherever they are, and remind us to look out at the passing countryside...

J'ai un profond respect des dates anniversaires
Ces portes que le Temps dispose autour de nous
Pour ouvrir un instant nos coeurs à ses mystères
Et permettre au passé de voyager vers nous.

...
Il existe en tous cas dans les anniversaires
Une part de magie qui fait surgir d'ailleurs
Les visages ou les mots de ceux qui nous sont chers
Des êtres qui nous manquent et dorment dans nos coeurs.
...
Sans amour notre vie n'est plus qu'un long voyage
Un train qui nous emporte à travers les années
Mais celui qui regarde un peu le paysage
Ouvre déjà son coeur pour une éternité.

Full lyrics here

Happy Birthday, Julian, Bon Anniversaire!

*These things are important too, though: we're off to Toys 'R' Us in the afternoon!

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