Celebrating even when you can’t spell

We honour milestones, birthdays, anniversaries, and even the end of a life. These are big events but we should also celebrate the small moments. A project finished, a new job, or even just a ‘we made it’. This does not mean every kid gets a trophy but a ‘Well done, I’m proud of you’ is also important. Maybe even more important.

This week I am celebrating finishing a first draft of my second book. First drafts are weird. They have a begginning, middle and end but that doesn’t mean they are the full story. They are full of forgotten story archs, unexplained characters, and a thousand spelling mistackes. So, how can it really be finished?

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There is enough to work with, I think. Enough of the idea got onto the paper (or screen) that now someone other than me can understand what I intended. They will have questions which the second draft will try to answer or that part will be deleted. Spelling mistakes will hopefully be caught, and punctuation placed approipiately. But more important the first step to achieving the goal of the story has been accomplished. It has been read by another person. Now its time to get to work to make it better.

I feel like sometimes we celebrate too much and other times, not enough. Big family dinners for no reason at all, just an opportunity to get together. This should be celebrated, Trying something new that worked out reasonably well – a hug and a word of joy, even when it still needs work. Even the day when you want the world to stop so you can just get off – but you got up and went to work anyway, even if your only goal was making it to lunch break. Celbrate what you are doing.

That being said, don’t make your celebrations so big and stressful that you start to resent or not feel the joy. Sometimes Christmas becomes a three week event that leaves me feeling like I totally missed the point. Focus. I think we need to focus our celebrations. We should be celebrating the real point of the celebration.

Not all celebrations require decorations and fancy napkins, but some do. Flowers or new clothes, maybe a couple do. A toast to the lucky individual or maybe just the cook, this is good. These are words, words of joy for where you have come from, words of encouragement for the next step in the journey. Words from the heart, especially when the wine is flowing. But you don’t need the glass to say the words. Look them in the eye, tell them they are good, valid, important to you. Tell them that their efforts are seen, acknowledged and appreciated. What you say means a lot.

This week share what you are celebrating, tell someone of your accomplishments. Ask others about what they are doing, and celebrate with them. Gifts and fancy dinners are not needed and neither are trophies. Use your words – because words can change the wolrd. Even if they are spelled wrong.