When You Don’t Feel Like Celebrating

It’s my birthday week. I’ve been dreading it since the beginning of the month. Luckily, I’m surrounded by the most amazing people who want to celebrate me, but I don't feel like there's anything worth celebrating. I'm turning ... years old, and I just feel like I haven't accomplished anything worth celebrating. At least not in the past year.

But the past two years have been so hard on us, and we've been even harder on ourselves. We are literally still in a pandemic. We are trying out best. We are still here. While I do always remind myself of this, sometimes it just doesn't seem enough. So here are more reasons why you should be celebrating, birthday or not.

Celebrate love. Love that comes in so many different forms, so many different languages, and ways. The love of a significant other, family, or friends, and if you're lucky, all of them. Because one thing's for sure, your life is so much better with them in it. They choose you every day, and you choose them.

Celebrate experiences. The good and the bad. The ones that shaped you into who you are today. The ones that taught you lessons and left scars. The ones that showed you there's more to life than what you thought.

Celebrate the ability to read. The fact that you can read anything and imagine yourself there. An easy escape that is accessible to you at any time and a form of expression.

Celebrate the good people still out there. The people who still try to change the world for the better. They strive to make it a better place for us, for you. The ones who volunteer at elderly homes, animal shelters, and hospitals. The ones who clean up beaches, are kind to strangers, and donate. That one stranger who put a smile on your face when you were having a bad day.

Celebrate good music. The top charts or your hidden secrets. The type of music that makes you feel like you're listening to silk or the artist who can out your pain in words.

Celebrate the moments you wanted to stop time and live in forever. Those moments may be outweighed by the bad ones, but you wouldn't have told them apart if you have not been through both. Celebrate the moments that make you pause, take a good long look around, and make a mental note to never forget that moment.

Celebrate all the heartaches you faced. Heartaches mean you've been daring and ambitious. You've allowed yourself to be put out there, feel, fall, and get back up again. You tried for something that mattered to you. And you're willing to again. If you don't think you are; with time you will yearn for that experience again. The difference being you will know better. You grew and learned.

Celebrate hope for tomorrow. The sun that rises every day, and the stars that light up the nights sky.

So turns out I have more than a few reasons to celebrate. In fact, I can think of a lot more now that I've started. When you start searching for the positive, you'll find a lot, and you'll see even more. We just tend to look for the negative most of the time.

Please take it easy. I say this to you, and myself. Because I've been treating myself so badly. I don't deserve it and neither do you.

Happy birthday to all my Virgos out there. May you stop trying to control everything and let life play out instead.

What do you celebrate? What is your take?

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