Grieving the Bad, Celebrating the Good
When my first book, Mama's Got a Fake I.D., came out, I didn't have a book release party. Truth be told, I'm not a big party person. I'm a small gathering sort of person. As I've discussed elsewhere, as relational as I am, I'm also introverted–so just the word party wears me out.
But this time around, my friend Jennifer asked if she could host a party for the release of Grumble Hallelujah. And I was all over it.
So what happened to change my mind? A simple conversation with my friend Anita. When her book came out last year, she too had leery of the book-party thing. Thinking it self-indulgent or prideful or whatever.
But Anita's friend–the one offering to throw the party–told her that a book was something worth celebrating. Her friend reminded her that celebrating is good. An important way to mark the good things of life.
That resonated. Especially since Grumble Hallelujah starts out with a whole section on needing to grieve the disappointments of life, I thought it rather fitting to have a celebration for the very good things of life. Which include: getting to write a book, having friends and family support me through the process, having friends willing to throw a party, bring food, hang out, sing songs, and grumble a few hallelujahs.
The release of this book–and any book–really isn't about a product being released into the world, but what God has done. I'm amazed at what God has done with my grumbling. That he not only turned it into a story to tell, but that he's used it to bring friendships and all sorts of blessings into my life.
So that definitely was worth celebrating. Thanks to Jennifer for putting it together and to Angela, Dave and Gregg for singing and strumming and to Rachel for the balloons (and the napkins!) and to Bethany and Denise for making the drinks and to everyone who came to help celebrate.
And while I won't have a big party every time something good happens, the whole idea of celebrating the good things–marking them somehow–has me eager to look out for more reasons to celebrate. Seems like a nice way to live.
Just curious: What do you have to celebrate lately? How do you celebrate the blessings in your life?
