Sunday, May 5, 2019

Celebrate Every Day

My five-year-old mind whirled with delight as Miss Rothenbach regaled my kindergarten classmates and me with exciting tales of floral leis, luaus, sugar cane, blue ocean waters and palm trees. Although I had been to as many continental states as I could count on my fingers and toes by that point, I had never heard of a place as exotic as Hawaii. For the next year, it seemed that all I could talk about was Hawaii and how I was going to live there one day. 


By the next year, my parents decided to indulge my continued interest in Hawaii by hosting a Hawaiian-theme birthday party for me. Mom, a prolific note taker, wrote this in a book she kept to record my first seven years: "Birthday party after school. All girls in 1st grade invited. Daddy brought girls out from school. Games in front yard, a supper and then outside to play until 6:00 when Daddy took girls home. Hawaiian theme. Varied colored paper leis and flowers for their hair. Margaret Wilhelm (a dear neighbor and talented friend) brought over her Hawaiian village set up for the table. Keri was a very excited little girl." I can still remember the pastel tissue paper flowers and the fun of pretending that I was in Hawaii, even though I was in our front yard in Wisconsin.


Turning seven years old at my Hawaiian-theme birthday party.

We always celebrated birthdays enthusiastically in our household when I was growing up. My late mom and I often shared those birthday celebrations, especially as I grew older, because our mid-May birthdays were only four days apart.

Our birthday celebrations, however, weren't fancy, lavish or expensive nor were they often filled with big parties. Birthdays for our family were celebrations of life, of blessing and of being together. They were celebrations of the opportunity to experience another year. 


Dad and I both seemed to approve of my birthday cake, showcased on a little table that Dad built for me.
It was a great day to turn two years old.

Now that I have traveled through several decades of birthdays, I have a generous share of memories to reflect upon and I look to future birthdays with gratitude. 

The reality, though, is that every day is cause for celebration, whether a birthday or not. It isn't the cake, the presents or the parties. It's the gift of the new day. 

What would our lives be like if we celebrated each day with the same jubilation we experienced as children when our birthdays rolled around? Think about that one for a little while.

How will you celebrate the blessing of this precious day?


Celebrate each and every day. There you will find the gift.










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