There is tremendous variety encompassed in the word “celebration”. The same word is used to describe saying Catholic mass, big, blow-out parties on New Year’s Eve, and even private times of remembrance, although most are communal to some degree. Most definitions of the word celebration also have in common a sense of deviation from the norm, a time-out from the everyday business and busyness of life to mark an event or passage, give closure and perhaps a new beginning.
I am not very good at celebration. It’s not the big milestone celebrations that trip me up: weddings, births, graduations, even “celebrations of life” which we used to call funerals. It’s the smaller celebrations that I am not good at. It’s a shortcoming, pointed out to me by staff who have been hurt by my impatience to get on to the next thing, to jump too quickly to next time.
Celebration often includes pausing to express appreciation and thanks, to acknowledge others. To rush past it is to dishonor the people who are important in our lives and the lives of others. To not celebrate is to not celebrate them. It has taken me a long time to learn that lesson.
I have learned it best from those younger than me. My generation is the one for whom the word “workaholic” was coined. My daughter’s generation is wiser about working to live, not living to work. Her children, as is the way of children under the age of 6, are wise enough to celebrate simply being alive. It’s all an adventure: I get to go outside? Ya-a-a-y! Blow bubbles? Ya-a-a-y! Run around in circles until I fall dizzy to the ground? Ya-a-a-y!
My grandchildren could teach most of us a thing or two about celebrating. Life is a journey. Here’s to those who not only know it, but live it. Abundantly.
“I think the important thing now is to have a celebration and then with determination move into our common, shared, different future.” Michael D. Higgin
