Find Any Excuse to Celebrate

The week before last, I was in NY with most of the whole family together, east coast and west coast. It was a very special time. We had a wedding, a new baby great grandson born, a belated birthday party and lots of time to hear Nannie tell stories (Tell me again Nannie!!) of big bad wolves, little pigs and sheep, and the whale that washed up on Rockaway Beach when she was a little girl.

My three year old granddaughter just loved the partying.

A week into the visit her Mommy and Daddy went to stay in the city and Little Miss got to spend the evening with her Nana and her Nannie – her grand and great grandmothers.

To be on the safe side we made plans to have dinner at my brother’s house where there are four more friendly faces and a big box of toy animals left from when their kids were little. On the way there my Mom told me she wanted to pick up a Carvel cake, same thing we did a week before when we went to my brothers for a barbeque and a belated celebration for my birthday.

She came out of the store with, of all things, a Spongebob themed cake.

“What on earth are we going to do with a cake that size – and really Mom, Spongebob?” I questioned. “Don’t worry, assured my mother, your brother in law is coming, it will get eaten.”

I hear a little voice come from the back seat. “Spongebob??”

“Nana?”

“Yes honey?”

“I always get cake Nana.”

“I know honey, and if you eat your dinner you can have cake tonight too.”

“Nana? We didn’t celebrate my birthday here.”

“Honey, you had your birthday party in California.”

“But Nana, I didn’t celebrate my birthday here yet!”

So that night Little Miss got to celebrate her birthday again, and we got a chance to celebrate her. We are already appreciating her strengths of creativity, imagination and her focus on getting what makes her happy.

In my book “54 Ways to Stay Positive in a Changing, Challenging and Sometimes Negative World”, #54 is called “Celebrate.” Here’s part of what it says. “Most people are good at celebrating birthdays, anniversaries, graduations and weddings. But the art of true celebration lives in the ability to celebrate life itself…”

“So today, ask yourself, “Did I recognize and celebrate the things that made me proud? Did I recognize and celebrate the beauty of life and the lessons I earned?”

In a world marked by chaos, master the art of finding the things that matter and ways to celebrate them. What are you proud of today? Where did your strengths show up?

YaY!!