2012 a year of celebration.

I'm not sure why I'm so set on celebrating this year. Maybe it's something to do with three consecutive months of celebrating this last fall and a particular walk up the hill and an emotional discovery that I am happiest when I have something to celebrate. And it doesn't have to be grand (but it could be - grand is good) it can just be a simple acknowledgment of something notable. Celebrating is gratitude in action isn't it? Birthday - grateful to be alive, so blow up balloons and eat cake. Independence day - grateful for independence, so send beautiful bombs to explode in the sky. Thanksgiving - grateful to be grateful, so eat. St. Patricks Day - grateful for the color green and a man named Ned (who has a heart the size of his head in his chest). This year I'm going to be more often grateful and act upon it by celebrating more. Maybe this is a resolution. I'm not sure. I shy away from that kind of pressure, worried that the right thing in January will be the wrong thing come July. A year is a long time isn't it? Well, at any rate - I'm going to celebrate this week. 3rd - Festival of Sleep, 4th Trivia Day, 5th National Bird Day, 6th Epiphany, 7th Nicolas Cage's birthday. (I was going to skip Nicolas Cage's birthday, but I really like Raising Arizona and Moonstruck so much that I thought I would show my gratitude by doing some celebrating.)

I'm hoping this celebrating will be a bit of a magic pill. I love music so much that I'm celebrating by teaching kids how to sing and how to appreciate it. I love feeling organized so much that I'm celebrating by cleaning out closets or the garage. I want to celebrate color by painting my bedroom. I'll celebrate breakfast by making it. I LOVE breakfast.

I really think one of the reasons I love Europe is that there have been so many people live in that place and love and make mistakes and walk and dance and think and die. The place itself is a celebration of lives lived. All of them all at once. I want to celebrate the planet and all of the incredible people who've lived on it by seeing all of it. And all of them. Is that reasonable?

It's 2:03 am. Off to a stellar start. I'm going to celebrate pillows by resting on some for a while. 4 of them. I really LOVE pillows.

Happy New Year.

2011 was a year for thinking. 2012 will be a year for celebrating.