Here’s a Grasshopper musing from not too long ago:

“Celebrate even when the skies are cloudy.”

Anyone seeking perpetual blue skies is caught in a marketer’s daydream.

Think of life as a case of clouds forming and clouds dissipating with an occasional period of pure blue sky. Anyone selling blue sky as the norm wants your dollars to keep them warm.

This “temporary blue sky” perspective has nothing to do with glasses being half full or empty. It’s a matter of how reality happens.

Whether you heed the words of poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow or spiritual writer Eckhart Tolle, the message is the same. Longfellow notes that “into each life some rain must fall” and Tolle says, “It is the nature of the world of form that nothing stays fixed for very long – and so it starts to fall apart again. Forms dissolve; new forms arise. Watch the clouds. They will teach you about the world of form.”

It seems the imbedded message is: don’t wait to celebrate.

“When the kids are older,” “when I retire,” “when I hit the lottery” are all symptoms of waiting for blue skies.

There is something to celebrate in each moment. We just have to take the time to notice regardless of the metaphorical weather.

To my eyes, celebration seems absent in most peoples’ lives, except for scheduled merriments that show up on a calendar: birthdays, holidays etc. If that’s you, you’re living under a self-imposed cloud or you live in Ithaca, NY (one of the more cloudy spots in the USA).

Take time to celebrate every day. It doesn’t have to be a monumental event. It could be as minor as removing a smudge from a mirror. “Damn that looks good!”

One celebration builds on another and before too long you’re in the habit of celebrating.

If you’re blue, find something to celebrate. It will bring a patch of blue sky to a gray day.

All the best,

John