Celebrate Life!

This week I read a fantastic book to my 3rd graders - "I'm In Charge of Celebrations" by Byrd Baylor. It's a wonderfully written prose-poem that tells the story of a girl who lives in the desert. The regular celebrations and school holidays aren't enough for her so she creates her own celebrations - she celebrates life. She finds many experiences worthy of celebration, like the day she danced with seven giant dust devils, or the time she saw a triple rainbow over the ravine and the only other creature to witness the event was a jackrabbit who stopped to enjoy the rainbow with her.

I loved her passion for life and how she was always looking for special things around her that she could celebrate. Yesterday, I saw something I thought worthy of celebrating - a Green Anole. I had never seen one here before, but yesterday I was blessed by seeing two! Right in the middle of a long staff meeting, my green little buddies waddled across the fence just out side the office window. Not once, or twice, but several times did they puff up their beautiful red throats for me!
So often we get bogged down with the pressures and hardships of life. We focus so much on the bad stuff that the beautiful stuff goes unnoticed. I challenge you to look around you and search for blessings and beauty to celebrate!