When life gets tough, there are times when perhaps all you want to do is throw birthday cake to the ground.
And sometimes you actually need to do that.
I aged another year yesterday, and I met up at Eatzi’s with my friend Betsy so we could catch up for a bit. I’m dealing with some stuff I don’t want in my life right now, and I told her before I ended the day that I wanted to throw a piece of birthday cake to the ground. She bought me a piece of cake from Eatzi’s and said we should carry out the plan at the pumpkin patch we were about to go to.
She has a great thought process.
When we got to the pumpkin patch, I didn’t think it was the best idea to throw the cake there—the people in charge looked way too nice for us to pollute their gourd grounds. The “Fossil Fest” across the parking lot, however, appeared to be the perfect place.
Betsy found her ideal pumpkin, bought him and put him in the car, and then we made our way to the Fossil Fest, though we still had no idea what such a thing actually entailed. (I only found two plastic bones on the ground while we were there, so maybe it was some type of treasure hunt. I’m still pretty uncertain.) We spotted a creek that looked like a great place to throw some cake, so I made the short trek down to the rocks.
I then wished the ground a happy birthday and gave it the “Tower of Power” cake slice from Eatzi’s.
It was a good moment, and I think it made both of us feel a little better for at least a brief time. While I’d prefer beating the crap out of a piñata—I mean, you get to take frustration out on something that’s created to be destroyed, and then you get candy—throwing cake on the ground was quite arguably one of the best decisions I’ve made in a long time.
Later that day, I was walking up the sidewalk to my parents’ house to watch the Cowboys game with them, and I saw a dad with his three children out for a walk and inspecting the grass. One of the little boys started talking to me about his swimming endeavors (HE’S OFF THE FLOATIES, PEOPLE!), and then his brother came over and told me that he was really sad. I asked him why, and he explained that a ladybug had landed on him, and that made him really happy, but then it opened its wings and “fell” (translation: flew away), and that made him really sad.
I hear ya, bro.
Sometimes the things we want to happen in life—like catching ladybugs—don’t happen, and we get upset. It hurts, and there might not be much we can do to make the pain go completely away. I sure hope that little boy finds some birthday cake to throw to the ground soon.
I know the difficult times in life don’t last forever, but they feel like they do when you’re in the midst of them. That’s when you need people like Betsy and others in your tribe to stick with you and even buy you cake that’s only going to be mutilated on rocks in a creek.
You might have some lost ladybug sadness every once in a while, and that’s OK. But you have to find what helps you keep your head up when you’re not sure you can. For me, it was throwing something to the ground.
Because, like humans, I think the ground needs some cake every now and then.
