Celebrate the wins
It’s widely acceptable to go all out and celebrate certain events with a bang — weddings, pregnancies, and births — but there are so many other things worthy of celebration. I find it a bit odd that the events that we put on a pedestal and are seen as okay to celebrate in style are ones that (traditionally) focus on having a romantic partner — there are so many things beside that that are worthy of celebrating.
Like getting a job (ok some people still celebrate this).
Like freezing your eggs (take yourself on a egg freezing-moon).
Like celebrating ten years of friendship (dress up together and go out to a fancy meal).
This is something I care about and encourage my friends to do, to take time to celebrate the wins — wins that are specific and important to you — that are meaningful in your life.
For me, that looked like finding out that my cardiac MRI is normal and that my heart is functioning properly.
🎉 🎊👏 🥳 🥂WOOHOO!!! 🎉 🎊👏 🥳 🥂
I was figuring out how to celebrate this news (ice cream was at the top of the docket) when a dear friend unexpectedly and very generously gifted me money to go commemorate this win. Even thinking about this now makes my heart go all tangled and fuzzy — obviously money is not the only way to reward (and throwing money at things definitely doesn’t help — look at all those messed up rich families; I’m looking at you, Succession), but it’s more so that typically, spending money on something signifies importance, and I was really touched to have a friend recognize the importance and significance of this MRI result when it’s something that’s outside the norm of what we traditionally spend money on to celebrate.
And then, the perfect idea came up…
BOOKS!!
I mentioned previously that books are some of the most precious items in my life, and most definitely the most precious items I’ll spend money on — I take an inordinately long amount of time to decide, but this time I vowed to impulse buy my book. I wasn’t going to try to find the “perfect” book, or the book that would make me look the most “educated” and “smart”, I’d go with the first one that made my pulse race and grab that up.
My favorite bookstore in Sydney is Better Read than Dead (yes, fabulous name!), and it’s a 20-30 min walk from my house. The absolute best part of this whole experience was that when I went up to the cash register to pay, I saw a sign stating that they offered complimentary gift wrapping so of course, I went for it.
I was expecting a standard brown parchment paper (after all if something’s free, it’s probably just “good enough” quality because well, it’s free and a business is a business that’s gotta run), but lo and behold — they offered REAL wrapping paper! The cashier pulled out a binder ring full of swatches of different wrapping paper options, from rainbow unicorns to printed leaves to cartoon zoo animals to patterned prints, to choose from — and then, the final (whipped chocolate hazelnut buttercream) icing on the cake was an entire box of ribbons to wrap my book with a flourish.
It was the best experience of my life. I gifted myself a present, and I can’t wait to sit and unwrap it and savor what’s within.
Better read, than dead — truer words have never been spoken, especially in light of this news, ha!
My wrapping paper and ribbon of choice. Thank you, Frances ❤️.