It started out as a joke more than anything. I found it on the free table at work — where books, beauty products, chocolate and random promotional items are left for people to fight over or ignore. The postcard is actually ugly: a pea green card with a thick marigold frame. And the words. The worst part. They’re in Times New Roman Italic (I don’t know anyone who celebrates anything in Times New Roman, Italic or otherwise.) This is, like, the most uncreatively designed postcard ever. But I thought the words — I celebrate your life! — were funny, so I took it.

I kept it in my cube and held it up at unexpected times to my co-workers without saying a word.

You think we should leave work a little early because it’s been a long day?

I celebrate your life!

You have the images I’ve been waiting days for?

I celebrate your life!

You’re going to give the intern all the scanning so that I don’t have to do it? Oh yes.

I certainly celebrate your life!

Eventually, the hilarity wore off, so I pinned the card up in my cube among the staff phone list, pictures of friends and barely legible notes to myself.

Months passed before I thought about the phrase again. This time it was for a friend’s birthday. What better time to celebrate a person’s life than on her birthday, right? I sent her a birthday-eve e-mail letting her know that I was celebrating her 25 years of existence (and that my present had not yet been mailed, as I do not celebrate going to the post office).

Less than a week later, my cousin was one of nine students accepted into a highly competitive graduate program. We had agreed that if she got in, we’d splurge on a nice restaurant (the kind we visited when other people picked up the tab). After we’d savored the five-cheese appetizer, I gave my cousin a toast; the gist of it was: Dear cousin, I celebrate your life! Somehow the awkward-yet-genuine phrase was finding its way out of my cubicle.

Once I started genuinely telling people that I celebrated their lives, I couldn’t stop. I’m not sure if people in my life were having more reasons to celebrate or if I was starting to pay better attention.

Shortly after all those celebrations, a friend told me that he was seriously considering quitting his job to start a company with his brother, an idea he’d been toying around with for years but now had the means to pursue. He told me about the preliminary work he’d done and plans for accomplishing everything else. And what did I think of this lofty plan? Dude, I totally celebrate your life. How can you not celebrate the bravery, vision, drive and creativity that it takes to pursue something like that?

And then I started to realize that it shouldn’t be such an exception to take notice and let our friends know that we’re thinking about them. When it comes down to it, we should be celebrating our friends’ lives — and our own — more often. And not just for the standard hoopla of birthdays, school and jobs.

You cooked a new recipe?

I celebrate your life!

After weeks of braving the DMV, you finally got a new license?

I celebrate your life!

I found an error in a hospital bill and was pro-active about contacting the companies so I didn’t have to pay extra for my E.R. visit?

I celebrate my life!

Taking the time to recognize the important or the little or the out-of-the-ordinary doesn’t have to be time consuming or well planned or eloquently stated. It doesn’t have to be on pretty stationery, typo-free with impeccable handwriting. But it does require you to go beyond thinking nice things to actually sharing them. So often I intend to let people know that I’m thinking about them but get sidetracked and forget. If it takes leaving the postcard in my purse and making a copy to tack up in my room, maybe that’s what I need to do to remind myself to celebrate all the wonderful things happening in our lives.

(I just hope I haven’t offended anyone by reusing the same line. If so, it looks like I need to find a new inspirational postcard.)

5 Responses to “I celebrate your life!”

1. Barb Says:
   May 21st, 2008 at 5:37 pm

   I loved this. It made me think, no matter how “ugly” the outside may look..the message, the heart, if you will is beautiful. I really enjoy the positiveness of this.

   Thank you..

2. I celebrate your life! at Bridget McNulty Says:
   May 23rd, 2008 at 1:55 am

   [...] I wish I could lay claim to that title, but I can’t. Alas, it belongs to another blog entirely, but one that you should check out right away. It’s called This Ordinary Day and it’s a group of people inspired by everyday life and blogging about it. My favourite so far is the ‘I celebrate your life!’ post, though. Classic: http://www.thisordinaryday.com/2008/05/19/i-celebrate-your-life/ [...]

3. Lin Says:
   May 23rd, 2008 at 11:55 am

   I celebrate YOU! xx

4. Debra Says:
   May 26th, 2008 at 5:25 pm

   thank you for that…I think even a smile can brighten anothers day…have you noticed how sullen people will smile back…happy if even for a moment. A small celebration of both lifes…

5. Laura Says:
   July 21st, 2008 at 2:47 pm

   Thank you so much for this! It’s gonna stick in my brain now, too!

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