Celebrate!

I have been keeping a gratitude journal consistently for more than a year and a half now, but it had become more of a burden rather than a bringer of appreciation and joy, until recently. I had an experience that changed my way of thinking.

I was thinking back to a time when my husband and I were just starting our family and working long, hard hours, to build a successful farm operation and family. Money was tight and it seemed we had no money to spend on anything extra.

Yet, after the end of each farming season, my wise husband would take me out to dinner and say, “We are celebrating another year of farming.” We didn’t often go out to eat at restaurants, and when we did we were careful to get the budget items on the menu, but on these occasions, because we were celebrating, we didn’t have to base our choice on the cost. It seemed scary and was actually hard for me to do, but he felt we had worked hard and we needed to reward ourselves. He would declare the event a celebration and so it was!

Over the years, we were able to go out to eat a little more often and my husband began to ask, “What can we celebrate today?” We’d come up with just about anything as an excuse to celebrate – the children’s grades, the crop didn’t get rained on, good health, the sun is shining, our time spent together. It became a delight to begin thinking of so many “small things” as reasons to celebrate.

It dawned on me recently just how much that ability of my husband to celebrate not just the “big” events but also the day to day events, was a mark of expressing gratitude. And because celebrating to me, means expressing appreciation for all that is right, I now choose to celebrate every day of life!

Instead of, at the day’s end, looking for what I had to be grateful for (which is still a great thing to do), I discovered, that for me, beginning my day looking for things to celebrate shifted my way of thinking and of being. I began to notice how much really is going right! I have now chosen to celebrate the big and the small as my way of expressing and living in gratitude!

I encourage you to try, just for today, to seek reasons to celebrate. Doing so just might change the direction of your new year to one of gratitude, thankfulness and celebration!

Here’s to a wonderful, blessed New Year filled with celebration!

Love,