A birthday prayer for continuity, country, and conscience

Assalamu alaikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh.

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As we grow older, birthdays quietly change their meaning. They become less about celebration and more about reflection. Less about counting the years, and more about pausing-gently-to ask ourselves how we have lived, whom we have served, and what truly matters.

This year, my birthday feels different. It feels sacred.

For the first time in a long while, I will mark this day not as a government official, not as a Cabinet Secretary weighed down by deadlines and decisions, but simply as Citizen Mina.

After years of serving as secretary of the Department of Budget and Management, I now find myself in a quieter space-one without hurried calls, late-night budget briefings, or the constant urgency of national imperatives. It is a rare stillness, one that allows gratitude and reflection to finally settle in.

Looking back, many moments of my life unfolded away from public view. Birthdays spent in meetings. Family milestones missed. Prayers whispered in passing because duty could not wait. These were sacrifices made out of love for country. I hold them not with regret, but with understanding.

Because true public service always asks something of you. It asks for time. It asks for presence. It asks for pieces of yourself you may never fully recover.

And still, knowing what I know now, I would choose it again.

At this time of year, the DBM is usually deep into preparations for the signing of the General Appropriations Act (GAA). I know my former colleagues are carrying that responsibility today with the same quiet dedication and resolve we once shared. I keep them in my thoughts and prayers, trusting that the work continues with the same sense of purpose.