Maggie and Kevin’s Grove Park Inn wedding got me to thinking about how much we need to celebrate life and celebrate one another.
“Blessed is this life, and I’m going to celebrate being alive.” –Brett Dennen
This is a short and sweet message today. It’s not really even my message. Occasionally I like to take lyrics from musicians that I listen to and slap a little AMP juice on them. Some of these MF’s can spit way more wisdom than I ever could, so here goes…
There are some really awful things going on in our world today (shootings, hate crimes, ISIS). Go back 100 years, there were awful things going on then too. Get in a time machine and go forward 100 years and there will be awful things happening in the future. Sorry, that got dark really fast. If you’ve been affected by any of the above, I am not making light of it, and I’m terribly sorry for what you’ve endured. The point I want to make is that there is always going to be evil occurring in the world. It can be very easy to watch the news or live a day in this world and say, “where is the hope?” But, there is also too much joy in the world, too much happiness, and too much to celebrate to let ourselves be weighed down by the constant barrage of negative media, social media, and the heinous shit that inhabits the globe. It seems like every time you get on social media, someone is in an uproar about something. This is the generation of letting our voices be heard and taking our freedom of speech to the highest degree as we do it from the comfort of our own homes, the ice cream shop, or wherever we happen to find ourselves when we are outraged. I realized recently that many of our friend’s views are way more conservative than our own. That’s great, let’s discuss it over some coffee or a beer. It’s okay to have differing opinions on things and it’s okay to disagree. What’s not okay is having to be right all the time. We want to justify our thinking and find a contingent of people who will validate us. This is divisive and it doesn’t win the other person over to your side. So what should we do instead?
Let’s celebrate. Let’s celebrate being alive, being able to love someone, being loved back by them. Let’s celebrate the fact that we don’t all have to share the same opinions or political views. Let’s celebrate marriage, dancing, laughter, family and all the small things that make this life worth living. So what does celebrating this life look like? It looks like doing things for others out of love, period, no agenda. It most often involves a cost and that cost is most often our ego. Celebrating is simply letting go of trying to control everything. And that nasty little voice in your head that wants to be negative or thinks the world is out to get you, will get quieter and quieter over time until eventually you can’t hear it. So celebrate something today. Take joy in it, revel in it. Don’t just go right back to your email, your phone, or some other distraction. Celebrating is all about taking the time to really enjoy just how blessed we are.
Venue: The Omni Grove Park Inn
Hair and Makeup: Hair and Makeup by Heather
Flowers: Flora Asheville
Catering: The Omni Grove Park Inn
DJ: DJ P-LO The Ultimate DJ and Live Music Experience
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