Praised be Jesus and Mary, now and forever.  
Today we celebrate Our Lady's birthday, her Nativity, as we call it. The day of Our Lady's birth is the beginning of a better world, Pope St. John Paul II said in his homily, September 8th, 1979. And the reason is that her coming into this world is like, "the arrival of the dawn which precedes the light of salvation, Jesus Christ," as Pope St. Paul VI said in his homily in 1964.
In 1987, Pope St. John Paul II designated a Marian year to celebrate the 2000th anniversary of Our Lady's birth. The Marian year went from Pentecost of 1987 to the Solemnity of the Assumption of August 15th, 1988. So if we go by those calculations, Our Lady would be about 2,038 years old, and I'm sure she doesn't look a day over 16, which is probably quite amazing, actually. It seems that Our Blessed Mother was most likely born in Jerusalem, probably on the site where the Church of St. Anne now sits there. Her birth attracted all the attention of heaven and virtually none of the attention of earth.
You could say that she came into this world as a nobody, and she left the world as queen of the universe, though in truth, you know, she was already queen when she was conceived. It's just that her greatness was hidden from the eyes of most people. What would it have been like to know Our Blessed Mother? I suspect that Our Lady was truly a warm and welcoming person. She would have been gentle and reserved, yet affectionate, tender, loving. At the same time, wise, respectful, and chaste.
As a side note to that, the odd or paradoxical thing is that the more chaste you are, the more you'll actually love others. The deeper and purer your love will be for others, the more you are chaste. It's counterintuitive, especially in our culture, but it's actually true. If you don't believe me, give it a try. It's one of the reasons why Our Lady, even when she was on earth, had such a deep and tender love for other people. Plus, when you were with her, I'm sure she made you feel as though you were very important, and you felt as if you were the only person in the world because her whole attention would have been on you.
Our Lady was humble, charitable, kind, considerate, patient. She would have been the ideal friend, the trusted neighbor, the perfect companion, the best of mothers. She was someone whom you loved being around and who actually loved being with you. She made you feel appreciated and loved. She made you feel as though it was a blessing for her to actually have you in her life when, in reality, always felt the opposite. You felt that you were the one who was blessed to know her.
Our Lady was understanding. She was easy to talk to. She was safe. She listened more than she spoke, or at least it seemed that way because she was a very empathetic person. She never dominated a conversation, and yet her words always stuck with you. At times, she would willingly talk more than usual when she noticed that someone wasn't very gifted in conversation or was struggling with what to say. So she was very much a skilled artist in regards to practicing charity. Never too much talking, never too little.
One of the beautiful things was that you could unburden yourself to her and not feel judged or condemned or misunderstood. No, you felt understood and accepted. And being with her somehow always brought peace to the heart. And when you left her presence, you already missed her. You look forward to the next time you could actually be with her. You wanted to spend all day with her, all week with her, even a lifetime with her. And yet she was so ordinary and so simple in many respects.
Our Blessed Mother even had a charming, good sense of humor. It seemed as though she could smile and be joyful at any moment, and yet there was also a very serious, reserved, and even mysterious side to her. She was as sensitive to evil as she was to good, and it seemed that the evil of others hurt her more than the good things in life actually delighted her. To those whom she was close to and opened up to, her personhood was so infectious that you could get lost in her. At times, you had the impression that her feelings were yours, that yours were hers as well.
Simply put, Our Lady would have been the rarest of creatures. And if you knew her, you would have been amazed at how few people there were who seemed to actually know and appreciate her. It's kind of how I imagine what being with Our Lady would have been like. But in truth, she's always with us. She's always with her children, with all those good qualities that we just mentioned, and even more that we didn't mention.
I asked a spiritual directee of mine who's very close to Our Lady, probably closer to her than anyone else I know, I asked her to share with me her thoughts to describe what Our Lady is like. This is what she wrote. She said, "She's gentle, loving, and caring. She hurts when we hurt and wants what's best for us, as any good mother does. She still has concern for her Son and the fact that so few love Him. I heard her sobbing brokenheartedly one day and asked her why she was crying. That was her reply to me, through tears and a sobbing voice, ‘so few people love my Son.’ She's untiring in her desire to save souls and turn minds, hearts, and souls back to her Son. She is pure love!"  So on this feast day of Our Lady's nativity, let's ask her for the grace to draw closer to her, to get to know her better, because the closer we are to her, and the more we get to know her, the more she will rub off on us, which will be a very good thing. Plus the closer we are to her, the closer we'll be to her Son, and we'll bring heaven a lot closer to earth, the closer we are to her.  Praise be Jesus and Mary, now and forever.