You have to be careful about small parties. If you're not, you'll outgrow them. You'll get too busy and sophisticated and weighed-down for celebrating, and you'll miss all the invitations. And the invitations are everywhere. Sometimes they're birthdays or half-birthdays (remember those?) or anniversaries. Sometimes other people come, and sometimes they're private parties, like the one I'm having all by myself today because it's Barbara's birthday and I get to celebrate how beautiful she is. On darker days, when it's hard to see the invitations, you can look in the rearview mirror and celebrate something that happened last week or last year. Or you can borrow things -- you can celebrate somebody else getting a promotion or writing a book or having a baby or exercising every day. Before you know it, you'll be so busy having small parties that all the worries and complaints will end up sulking in the corner where they belong.
"[Celebration] is the unceasing affirmation that underneath all the ups and downs of life there flows a solid current of joy." Henri Nouwen, Lifesigns
"Let's have a feast and celebrate. . . . [And there was] music and dancing." Luke 15:23, 25.