Painted in Celebration

green food coloring from pie-making and a henna tattoo honoring a friend

It is Monday and I am filled up. I am green and brown and smiling. It is gray and foggy and cold outside and I am warm and juicy and inspired inside. I am full. This is a magical feeling.

This weekend was all about Service and Celebration and I am marveling at how energized and enlivened I feel coming out of it. On Saturday I hosted a Blessingway/Mother Blessing for a friend who is expecting her first child. It was a powerful circle of women which reminded me just how important it is to have deep real friends, and how important the task of Mothering really is.

And that whether you have children or not you may quite deeply engage in Mothering. Because the very first person you can Mother is yourself. What a gift you could give the world to truly nurture, love, and embrace yourself in the way that your own mother could not even know how to do. And from there we are each invited to be Mother to each other. Mother in the most accepting loving and supportive way possible. And even men can Mother I think. Wouldn't that be an amazing world, if men were Mothering others the way the tender-hearted ones Mother their own children. I think it's possible.

From the Blessingway to the Kula Jam where the studio was packed with new eager faces who delighted in exploration and community. As the "leader" of sorts of Saturday's Kula Jam I was invited into service of all the beautiful souls. In times past a schedule like that: the Blessing then the Jam: would've felt too much, too exhausting, too stressful... Saturday it felt like a gift. A magical moment to help people have fun explore and feel connected. Saturday was community day... even on into the night when we gathered with our newly forming supper club.

Sunday teaching and practicing and time with friends and the gift of rest to my body.

And today is Monday. And I am full. And it is my Husband's 39th birthday.

Again, a cause for celebration and service. A few years ago I wasn't home on his birthday. I went to a yoga workshop with my teacher. I forgot to wish him happy birthday as he stayed home and watched our one-year-old. I will never skip his birthday again, because, Birthdays are big deals. Birth Day is a huge deal, for all involved. It makes me frustrated when people talk about aging and not wanting to have the number creep up... the thing is, there is only one way to stop having birthdays, and I, personally, am not ready for that yet. SO let's celebrate them instead shall we?

All of this... an immanent new baby, a fledging new community, the birthday of the man I love... all about birth, beginnings, coming alive, it has a push and momentum that is building and about to crack wide open. I can see it coming.

Celebration

Anodea Judith says: "Let what you love occupy the center of your life. Make the fulfillment of your longing your highest priority. When your longing is answered, you will have cause to celebrate.

The heart is nourished by celebration and play, pleasure and beauty, creativity and laughter. These are the seeds of love. They are the ground from which it grows, and they are present in every new relationship. ... Joy is a sign that the heart is open. Contentment is a result. Foster the age of the heart with glorious celebration, creative collaboration, and passionate production of continuous delight."

We do not celebrate enough. We do not engage in the passionate production of continuous delight in our society. I do not do it enough in my very house. But to celebrate is to mark occasion. It is to honor and validate shifts and growths, beginnings and endings, accomplishment and passages. And it need not be accompanied by fanfare, sugar, or confetti. Just a simple recognition, smile, and pat on the back may be enough.

On a dreary Monday such as this it is difficult to find cause to celebrate. January is certainly not my favorite time of year. So I say, go out and LOOK for it. Maybe we can smile inwardly to ourselves today and offer that loving Mother energy in celebration of the beauty inherent in our own lives. It is a gift that you are alive at this moment. Breathe in, Breathe out... Celebrate.