Bart's Perfect 12th Birthday Cake(s)

Nearly five years later, I have decided to pick up the baking tools and bake a cake for my son's birthday.  This is what they have done. 

I think they have done a perfect job. Perfect, because it is not perfect.  Perfect, not from their work, but perfect because of their ernest involvement, the smiles on their faces, the shine from their eyes. Bart came to me later, "mummy, thank you for giving me such a nice birthday" completed the last piece of perfection for me. I was in bliss. I feel blessed.

Everything was prepared and set out on the working table, I repeatedly reminded myself not to fret over spilled melted chocolate, drips from the cherry syrup and scattered coloured sugar balls/rice. That the objective is to let them participate, flaunt their creativity, and come out with something nice for the birthday boy. The boys took the instructions well, did their decorations as systematically as they could get for their ages, their pleasure obvious from the licking of their fingers.  The shift in my mentality allowed me to watch them with enjoyment, not stress.  The re-arrangement of my priorities (boys' enjoyment over chores) zoomed me out from a micro to a macro perspective, experiencing something that seldom happens to me.

I have learnt one very important lesson today.  I can be happier when I make an effort consciously to be less uptight about everything.  Such is the power of one's mentality.