ash wednesday

i didn't know that today is ash wednesday until some crazy friends called me up to greet me a happy birthday. although my birthday is still a couple of months away, my friends have marked every ash wednesday as my special day since i've got a birthmark on my forehead.

today is the only day of the year that i'm not so unique. on this day, i just look like the rest...with a black mark on the forehead. although mine isn't shaped like a cross, it's like a small thumb mark right in the middle.

the other 364 days of the year is another story. i get to hear people asking one another if it's ash wednesday when they see me. but some do ask me directly and my answer would vary from "it's not wednesday today." or "the lenten season has just finished." or "no, it's not." do i get irritated? not really coz i've gotten used to it. and some people are not catholics so they didn't know better. for the catholics...well...

a couple of surgeons have tried to convince me to have my birthmark removed. they have listed all my options or ways they would remove it without leaving a scar. one even volunteered his plastic surgeon son to do it and he would pay for the procedure. another told me that mine is a pre-cancerous nevus so i have to remove it. a part of me wants to but there's a bigger part of me that wants to remain different. it's one of those things that makes me, ME.

but for today, at least for most of the day, i was just like everybody. not until i went to the hospital chapel to have my forehead marked with ash and the priest strategically placed the cross below my birthmark! i was unique all over again.