Celebrate YOU!

Cel·e·brate

verb

1. acknowledge a significant or happy day or event.

 
My son is turning 13 this month. We’ve been talking about all the ways in which we could celebrate him and this moment in time.

We went to a Bat Mitzvah recently for a friend of his. 

It was our first.

What a beautiful ceremony it was. 

We were so touched by the outpouring of love for this young woman. The gathering of all her loved ones to bear witness to the momentous occasion, to honor her journey into womanhood. It was a celebration of who she is and who she is becoming.

It was so very moving.

These are special moments that require ceremony and festivities to honor the people we love.

Maybe it’s a birthday, or an anniversary or a retirement.

We say out loud at these gatherings: look at this person. Look at who they are and what they did. We clap and we love.

It got me thinking.

How often do we do this for ourselves?

Maybe there are opportunities where we can do this more.

Maybe we can take this time to: 

Recognize,

Honor,

&

Celebrate

our small wins as well as our big wins… for ourselves.

There seems to be a running ticker keeping track of the mess-ups, the blunders, the shortcomings. No shortage of that!

But do we really take the time to feel proud, to see ourselves, to recognize, honor and celebrate those moments that require that kind of attention? From within?

Moments that maybe society doesn’t even actively recognize?

Perhaps, rather than waiting for others to see, to validate, to confirm…

We do that for ourselves.

We take the time to say the things we seek out from others, such as:

“I am so proud of you.”

“You did it.”

“You are strong.”

By recognizing yourself, you stop waiting.

You connect with your inner authority.

You allow yourself to experience deep pleasure as a result of the journey you’ve taken.

You take a moment to recognize and bear witness to these accomplishments along the way, and in doing so you create a marker in your path.

Perhaps we could think of this like creating a cairn. 

In case you don’t know, a cairn is a stack of rocks; you pile them up on a hike to keep track of where you are.

They are markers where trail signs are hard to see or maybe are missing.

So you create the “cairn” for yourself by taking a moment (or several) and take stock of where you are and where you’ve been.

Who you are and who you are becoming.

You celebrate your journey.

You create the cairn to keep from getting lost.

You pile those rocks.

You create those markers.

It sure is nice to be recognized and honored. 

For sure. 

And having community, friends, loved ones is the key to a happy, joy filled life.

Life doesn’t flow when we are an island.

And we will be celebrating our sweet boy and loving him up to mark this moment in time in a couple of weeks.

And let’s do that for ourselves, shall we?