| Written by David White,
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Sip #176
What Wine Could You Choose to Celebrate a 21st Birthday?
We were reminded of how swiftly the years fly when we toasted our son’s 21st birthday, at a restaurant of his choice, with a wine born the same year he was. What made the toasts so rich was not just the clink of glasses with a young man enjoying his first taste of wine as an adult of legal age; nor was it the phenomenon of enjoying a wine that was alive as many years as we were celebrating with him. What added to the moments of toasting with this special wine were the memories of birthdays past: tracing Josh’s journey from infancy, childhood, his teen years, and now his first moment of full-grown adulthood. One memory was of when he was 3 years old: wondering whether it would be possible or feasible to find a wine that could last until his 21st birthday, from a year that was not considered favorable for longevity. I recalled sharing my concern with a friend who responded by giving me a bottle from a small winery that produced a few hundred cases of Cabernet. That was the bottle we opened. Every sip of the 1988 Bellerose wine was a taste of the divine; we were filled with gratitude that what we hoped could work out from when Josh was a toddler came to such delicious fruition! Drinking an old and aged wine, celebrating our son’s first steps into young adulthood, juxtaposed how aging goes for different kinds of life; an old wine met a young man of the same age. How wondrous it is to celebrate life’s journey with a wine that has been with you all the way. When the toasting was done, the last sip enjoyed, and the meal concluded, what remained was a wonderful phone call to the folks who had given us the wine, to thank them for being with us through their gift, of so many years earlier, and how well it turned out. My call triggered memories for them, as well, of when the children were little, that we put aside a precious time capsule to open on that special day. What a wonderful way to celebrate our son’s 21st year of life! REFLECTION QUESTIONS FOR SIPPIN’: 1. How have you honored old memories in celebrating a new milestone? 2. What are ways you can use/have used wine as a time capsule? 3. What do you recall of a plan made years earlier that you completed in its anticipated time…and with what impact? 4. (Raise your own question… as you are invited to do in Sippin’ on Top of the World) (In celebration of Josh’s 21st with gratitude to Richard Lenson)
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