A beach walk celebrates the completion of a long day |
Dinner to celebrate our friends' visit from Sweden |
I suppose celebrations are on the brain because today is in fact my birthday, and as I grow older, I find my relationship to the celebration of life events is changing, of course. Obviously at 32, it's no longer about the cake, the party, or the gifts. (Though I'm embarrassed to say I probably out grew this later than some. When I was a little girl and would wish on a star, I would wish that wrapped presents would start falling from the sky, so.....cakes and parties and gifts are nice when you can come by them!) But now it's about the phone call I know I'll get first thing in the morning from my mother. My husband hugging me in the kitchen and calling me his birthday girl. The birthday card coming across the long miles from my sister in Seattle - the one that fills both pages of the card with handwriting and a message that never ceases in moving me to tears in it's meaning. The sweet pings of birthday wishes from friends and readers on Facebook and Twitter from across the globe: a reflection of the incredible people I've met in my life and the rainbow variety of paths that they walk.
Celebrating Mary Alice Monroe's new book at the SC Aquarium |
It's about going to see "Snow White and the Huntsman" and eating mozzarella sticks for dinner.
So yes. I'm a celebration-aholic and proud of it. Because celebration reminds us to live in the moment. It reminds us to take the time to connect, appreciate and reach out to the people we love in our lives. It provides us with a much-needed timeout from the weights and stresses of the challenges of being grown-ups, and being human, giving us a blissful pocket of time to simply be delighted.
So if there's one thing I could encourage you to do, it'd be to remember when you have a bad day, to raise a glass, light a candle, make a wish, and blow it out. Because it's bound to be somebody's birthday somewhere. And life is too glorious and too brief an affair to not celebrate every moment we have to spend.
Why not celebrate four days early? Sunday's early birthday cookout with The Butler Family. (With sweet, sweet, wee Grey Butler.) |
Happy birthday, Signe :D
ReplyDeleteAgreed! I should embrace my own celebration-aholic nature. In fact, I think I'll start tonight by picking up a bottle of wine on my way home! It's my 2 month anniversary of joining Mary Kay, after all. ;) So happy anniversary to me and happy birthday to you!!
ReplyDeleteYes! Celebration-aholic's unite!! Happy Mary Kay-iversary, Connie!
ReplyDelete