anticipation

"Looking forward to things is half the pleasure of them."

– anne of green gables

l.m. montgomery 

celebrations

The Preacher is at a Christian school, he has played his Native American flute and now he tells the children a story of a little Indian boy who is in charge of his own celebrations.

The Preacher is at a women's luncheon, he has played his flute and now he tells them of the same little Indian boy. 

The story is from the book, I'm In Charge of Celebrations, by Bryd Baylor.

How can I be lonely? I'm the one in charge of celebrations ...it's true. I am. I put myself in charge. I choose my own. Last year I gave myself one hundred and eight celebrations–besides the ones that they close school for. I keep a notebook and I write the date and then I write about the celebration.

I have heard this story twice now within the last few weeks and upon hearing it I wondered, do we choose our own celebrations? And then I remembered some of the celebrations that we have celebrated within this last year.

We celebrated the beautiful western sky sunset by texting a friend saying only ..."sunset alert", and them knowing that we want to share the beauty.

We celebrated the night sky by sitting on a picnic table with friends, watching the stars shooting across the sky.

We celebrated when we received a card from a friend saying that they miss us.

We celebrated by traveling to places that we had not seen in a long time.

We celebrated when we heard the voices of little children singing the praises of our Lord.

We celebrated when we looked up and saw the last of the season's aspen leaves hanging on until the very end.

We celebrated when we drove down the road and our favorite song was playing and we sang loud.

We celebrated when finding an old photo of a father now gone for 36 years.

We celebrated when we saw a son's face after being separated for too long.

We celebrated when we looked across a crowded room and saw the one we love coming near.

We celebrated when we found that perfect gift for a loved one and seeing their face light up after the unwrapping.

Are you in charge of your celebrations? Celebrate the ordinary and the extraordinary.  

Choose to celebrate!