Eku ewu omo.
Felicidades por tu paquete de alegría.
Congratulations on your bundle of joy.
The Williams' living room buzzed with the uncontainable excitement that only the arrival of a new-born can summon. Friends and family, each carrying their own delight, flooded the house. Shoes of various sizes and colours littered the entryway—a tell-tale sign of a joyful gathering. Every coo, every tiny wriggle from the swaddled infant was met with a chorus of hushed “tsssssssssshhhhhhhh,” as if the slightest sound might wake the baby or shatter the magic of the moment. And just like that, baby Dave was welcomed into the world—a new addition to a middle-class family in a quaint town in Northern England.
We were all like baby Dave once, thrust into the grand spectacle of life without so much as a by-your-leave. Maybe your birthplace wasn't a sleepy town in England; perhaps it was a bustling city or a serene countryside. But the essence remains the same: you entered the world unannounced, uninvited, and yet somehow—here you are.
Ever paused to ask, “How did I get here?” or “Why this place, these parents, this time?” We often ponder the randomness of our origins, the accidental nature of it all. My younger sibling once dared to voice this question to my dad: “Why did you give birth to me?” My dad, in his usual deadpan humour, responded, “Blame your brother. He pulled you down from heaven.” A humorous deflection, sure, but beneath it lies a truth that none of us can deny: we're all passengers on a journey we didn't choose, guests at a banquet we didn't RSVP for.
Life is a strange host, isn’t it? It seats you at a table without explaining the menu. It hands you a script with pages missing, lines crossed out, and new scenes added without warning. We arrive like actors thrust onto a stage mid-performance, without rehearsals or a clear understanding of the plot. Some of us never even catch a glimpse of the playwright.
Have you ever wondered why you didn’t sprout as a majestic oak or flutter into the world as a butterfly? Why these particular parents, this unique set of circumstances? Life, with its tangled web of fate, choices, and sheer randomness, doesn’t pause to answer our questions before it moves on, sweeping us along in its current.
Here’s the catch: we don’t get to choose the hand we’re dealt. We don’t get to pick our starting line. We don’t even get to opt out of the race. The only real choice we have is what we do next. So, why not live?
I don’t mean just the kind of living that involves paying bills, watching the clock, and following the rules. I’m talking about the audacious kind of living. The kind that sees you dancing in the rain just because you can, taking risks that set your soul on fire, and laughing so hard your belly aches. It’s about living as if you’re in on the cosmic joke, as if you’ve accepted the unsolicited invitation and decided to make the most of the party.
The world can be a bewildering place, full of unanswerable questions and unexpected detours. But maybe that’s the point. Perhaps the lack of a clear-cut script is an invitation in itself—a nudge to create, to explore, to stumble, and to rise again. Life doesn't wait for us to figure it out. It doesn’t pause for us to decipher the why or the how. It just happens, gloriously and maddeningly, all at once.
So, here’s to the unsolicited invitation you didn’t know you received, the one that brought you to this moment, right here, right now. You’re already on this wild, unpredictable ride called life. You’re already dressed for the occasion, with a front-row seat to the greatest show on earth.
So why not make it count? Why not lean into the adventure, embrace the mystery, and live with the kind of reckless joy that baby Dave showed on his first day in the world? After all, you’re here, whether you asked for it or not.
Welcome to the party.
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