“Celebrate with me!” I say as I come up the stairs with two champagne
flutes and a bottle of Cava from the basement refrigerator. It’s spontaneous and I don’t care. We’re not doing anything special, planting a vegetable
and herb garden, watching poppies flower from their buds. We forget
sometimes how much there is to celebrate in the course of an ordinary day. We
spend our lives wishing for extraordinary, attempting to keep up with the
highlight reels our friends and strangers we admire post on social media.
Scrolling through LinkedIn posts
this evening, I came across a woman sharing her disappointments, her failed
sales calls in the past work week, deliberately debunking our redacted stories
in the name of humility and truth. It’s refreshing
and something we need more of.
We spend time trying to stay in
front of trials and tribulations. Our
expectation is that life should be pain-free and we’re doing something wrong if we’re presented with hardship. We think we should
agree with each other all the time, we high-five when we’re on the same page.
I say it’s easy to be on the same page. Too easy.
If we’re on the same page all the time
than maybe we’re
surrounding ourselves with people who are too much like we are, people who can’t offer an opposing point of view and therefore
shelter us from bigger ideas, prevent us from growing.
Aren’t we better off being challenged with an opposing
view, and instead of trying to debate or litigate our positions, putting our
energy into managing conflict, in finding compromise? It’s not always
going to be pretty, we’re not going
to be proud of our outbursts or what we look like when frustration boils over,
but we’re human and real and taking the
first step toward seeking understanding.
And this is what I want to
celebrate today. I’m here on this earth for another day with a partner
who never stops working toward understanding. I’m his flower; he’s my gardener.
That’s the mission of his soul. I’m so
fortunate.
