Celebrations

Tonight we have Carter's spring teacher conferences. Well, back in the day, we called them conferences -- a time for parents to talk to the teacher. Somewhere along the line they changed it to Portfolio Night -- a time for parents to look at their child's work, too. This year, Carter informs us, it's Learning Celebrations Night -- I guess a time to talk, look and celebrate your child's progress. Cool.

Wouldn't it be great for us grown-ups to have Life Celebrations days?

How often do we celebrate our successes? Sure, it's easy to give out high fives when our team scores a touchdown or do the little Tiger Woods fist pump when we ace a job interview, but how often do we give ourselves the credit (and adulation) we deserve?

Last night I stayed at work late so I could finish a major leg of a project. Everyone around me knows it's been a crazy month and we have 10 days to "launch." As the deadline looms, I wanted and needed to wrap it up. When I got done, sometime after 6, I shouted out, "OK, who wants to do the happy dance with me?" The 2 people left did not hesitate to join -- though it was more quiet cheering than dancing. It still felt good!

No, I am not done with the project. But celebrating our progress has a way of motivating us to keep going.

I'm looking forward to seeing what Learning Celebrations Carter will share with us tonight, observing what progress he's made toward his end goal of passing the fifth grade and learning for life.

Is there something you can find to celebrate today? Maybe you've lost a pound or lasted 3 days without yelling at your kids. Maybe you've handled stress at work really well this week and kept your homicidal thoughts to yourself. Perhaps you managed to look on the light side for one day and thanked God for your blessings.

There must be something worth dancing about. And don't be timid. They say we should dance like nobody's watching.

And we're worth it.