Celebrate

It occurs to me that there is much to celebrate. Next month is my birthday and that is definitely reason enough. Celebration is and should be an inherent part of our existence. I read once about a tribe that didn’t celebrate birthdays, but instead, when a person felt that they had achieved something, the tribe celebrated then. I like this idea a lot. Bringing people together for reasons of happiness is something that I intend to do more often.

I was thinking about all the good things in my life that I would like to celebrate. My upcoming interview for my master’s degree, the end of one of my jobs and likely countless other events that qualify as happy making. Tangible things are easy to recognise achievement with. But much like the argument that people are more sympathetic towards physical illness than they are towards mental illness, it is easier to recognise things that have a physical presence. But what if we started to celebrate the non-tangible things in our lives? Taking this further to start celebrating our emotional and intellectual achievements too?

What if I went a whole month feeling that every time I wanted to say something that I could? What if I picked out nice clothes for myself every day for a week? Are either of these things worthy of acknowledgement, if only by me? I am deciding that yes they are. Progress is progress, irrespective whether you are ticking off dates on a calendar until your birthday, a new qualification, or finally feeling that someone might want to listen to your words. Having that deep sense of gratitude for what is in my life is an amazing feeling.

Map Point. What do I want to celebrate next?