Go Ahead, Make Someone's Day

Each year comes with countless celebrations: birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays receive a great amount of attention, which they deserve. Halloween and Christmas always find me more excited than the year previous. Speckled throughout the year are many other life-milestones, like welcoming a new baby into the world, graduating, accomplishing various challenges, etc. Most every week, we find a small reason to celebrate: we aced a test, we did really well at work, we made a delicious dinner... And most definitely every day gives us dozens, if not hundreds of small opportunities to rejoice and celebrate. They are omnipresent, which sadly plays to their disadvantage. These minute blessings are too often overlooked and unnoticed, but it is a sure-fact that they are greater and far more significant than any New Years bash, Christmas feast, or Halloween candy. (Well, maybe not better than Halloween candy. But just maybe.)

Your house. your friends. Your neighbors. Your health. Your (fill in the blank). 

Your family. They are worth a daily brass-band parade. I feel this everyday with my family, through their unique humor, their great hearts, their power, their knowledge. Their small and subtle nuances make them the fantastic people that they are. I only wish I could shower them constantly with gifts and manifestations of my love... Oh wait! I do believe I can! Through respect, love, compassion, laughter, I can show them that I love them entirely, that I love them unconditionally. But sometimes you just want to do that something "extra" for those in your life, you know? So do it! What on earth are you waiting for?? 

Photo Property of Disney/Pixar

In case you haven't deduced this already, I'm a big fan of Disney-Pixar's Up. You could say it's the greatest inspiration behind this thread, even behind my every-action...Ha! And I'm sure you're all plenty sick of me screaming "ADVENTURE!" by now. But I'd like to reference one of my favorite lines in the movie for this blog-post; it's relevance is too poignant to not quote. Russell, the small (and ridiculously adorable) wilderness-explorer is telling his older friend Carl about the special tradition he shared with his father. They would sit out on a curb, eat ice-cream, and count the number of red or blue cars that passed by. "That might sound boring," Russell says, "but I think the boring stuff is the stuff I remember the most." 

You don't need to give a gift wrapped up in paper. Celebrating someone special doesn't require a cake-with-candles. Sometimes the greatest gift you can give is your undivided attention. Maybe you could play games, color, cook, play, laugh, or draw together. Perhaps you could watch (and even enjoy) their favorite movie. Send them a simple card saying I Love You. Make/Buy them a special treat. Sing and dance together. You know best what your friends' and family's interests are... Cater your "gift" around that! You don't need to surprise them with a 2-week vacation to the Bahamas. Remember, sometimes (if not every time) the "boring" stuff is the stuff you'll remember and cherish most.

Keep your goggles clean and your compass steady... Make today an adventure, for you AND someone you love!