So What Are We Celebrating?

Every time I find myself with someone at a nice restaurant, the host asks if we are celebrating anything. Usually, the answer is simply “no.” The secret is, we don't need a justification. Our celebration is just this — just us. This moment. Everything, nothing. Each other.

Sure, I love a reason. Who doesn’t like extra attention on their birthday or graduation? But I was taught that you don’t actually need an excuse to pop the champagne. It’s Tuesday; champagne! It’s Monday and I worked hard — yes, to the dinner and befriending the bartender. I woke up today and I am alive alive ALIVE and that is as good a reason as any to celebrate. To treat myself, well and often. What do we do with all the saved “special” bottles, or the bath bomb we bought for just the right evening? Do we get to take it with us when we die? Will we have lived any better a life if we lived it chastely and in moderation?

So, yes. You can go to extra lengths when you have a “reason” (like, ahem, Valentine’s next week, my birthday in a few months, our anniversary…). But in case you needed permission: here it is. You don’t have to wait for a perfect moment to be an active agent in your own life. You don’t have to have everything perfectly planned and aligned. Hell, you don’t even have to wait for Mercury to leave retrograde, or whatever the astrologers are saying these days. Tomorrow we may all be gone. Today is the only time you have. Right now. And now. And now. And now.

You don't need a reason to grab life by the waist and take her for a spin.