July’s Word of the Month: Celebrate

So engrossed in the Pause that was June, I let July arrive without a plan, post or purpose. Catching up now, July 4, which is my birthday and oh yeah, the birthday of our nation, I am sharing my word of the month, which is, Celebrate. My relationship with my birthday and the July 4th holiday originated in celebration, and my parents kept the party going. As the Fourth arrived each year, they told me that the fireworks were for My birthday. This may have been a disservice, as being told you are special inevitably leads to disappointment.

This birthday, I don’t have any special celebration planned. As 47 arrives, I feel like the universe is challenging me to find ways to celebrate in unconventional ways, or things to celebrate that are not traditionally cause for celebration. I wake up to a still-messy house. I go to the bathroom to find my husband had used the last of the toilet paper and didn’t replace it, again. I step on the scale (my now Monday morning routine) and find that, despite another week of working hard exercising and burning way more calories than I’m consuming, I’ve gained a pound. Hello, 47.

Thinking about celebrations, and how I generally don’t enjoy parties now that I don’t drink my way through them, I try to dissect the cause, the purpose, the significance. Why do we celebrate, or have celebrations? We celebrate to mark the passage of time, the fact that we’ve made it through a measured amount of days, often in spite of difficulties and set backs. We celebrate to give significance to an otherwise normal day that has some sort of special meaning to us. We celebrate to remember an event at set increments; to take time out to remember that important day, and reflect on the journey since. The day you arrived on this planet, the day you joined your life with another, the day you put the final punctuation on a long, rewarding career, the day you walk away from the thing that is slowly destroying you. And what does it mean to celebrate another year of something? Celebration is, at its core, an outward recognition of gratitude.

So on this birthday that I share with our country, I have a lot to celebrate. In this year of tragedies and trying times, I spent my days mothering, working, caretaking, praying, reading, learning, writing and struggling to understand. In this year past year that many would proclaim darker than the others, I found beauty and light in nature and the magic that is outside. In this year of change and uncertainty, I chose to wake up each day and thank God for not only all the blessings, but the burdens that I believe are molding and shaping me. On this day, I am grateful for another year sober and free. With open eyes, mind and heart, I can take it all in.

Happy Birthday, America. Happy Birthday to me.