I recently wrote about my mom’s philosophy, “Enjoy yourself. It’s later than you think.” This post is a follow up and a continuation of the theme that I choose to live my life as joyfully as possible. Once again, credit is due to Mom, who believed each day should be lived to its fullest. When I was growing up, Mom always decorated our home for holidays and birthdays. Jack-o-lanterns came out at Halloween, Easter eggs at Easter, with Christmas being her favorite time to decorate. When it was someone’s birthday, Mom decorated the house days in advance and she always bought special plates, etc. for the birthday parties that she enjoyed hosting. Guess what? Mom passed her love of celebrating every occasion to me! I decorate David’s and my house for every holiday and birthday. I have all of Mom’s decorations and they are always a part of our holiday festivities. David’s birthday is on St. Patrick’s Day and, about 2 weeks before the big day, our house is covered in green! David and I have attended birthday and other celebrations hosted by our family and friends and we have remarked how some of them seem rather sad and drab, due to the absence of any decorations, compared to our bright and cheerful parties. David and I don’t wait for “big” occasions to celebrate. We celebrate the small things in our lives as well as the milestones. Just as David rings a bell every time we get a new case, we celebrate the fact that we are going to a concert, or having friends over for a visit, or our cat’s latest trick. Life is too short to be grumpy. Instead of saying, “This is just another day,” I choose to celebrate, as much and as often, as possible!
Too often, life seems dominated by the negative. We live in a time of stress and strife. As readers of this post know, Melissa and I have dealt with, or are dealing with, difficult issues with the aging and illness of family and friends. But, we have to have some rays of sunshine in life, such that celebrating accomplishments brings light to darkness. We celebrate new clients and cases. We share the celebration with our clients when they win a case. We celebrate employees’ successes and birthdays. We celebrate our anniversary with a bottle of champagne once a month. I will admit though to not being enthusiastic about putting up decorations. Oh, I do fine for Melissa’s birthday, but for most of the rest of the year I leave it to her to be the creative one in putting out the decorations. Though, I am supportive when we see new decorations to buy – even being known to buy and help bring decorations such as Christmas ornaments home from international travels. But, putting up the Christmas decorations is particularly tiresome for me in that it takes us 4 to 5 days to do a full display of all we’ve accumulated. The end results are, however, rewarding and especially as we get thanks and acknowledgments from neighbors, even strangers, riding by our house. It is, then, that sharing in the celebration of the seasons becomes more meaningful.
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