Gratitude Friday 11-17-23 – National Day of Celebration

I have been writing this weekly post for nearly 4 years, which means around 200 distinct posts on gratitude. Sometimes the topics flow, other times they require extra effort. In many instances picking a topic to focus on and writing about helps me learn about something I would not have learned in another way. It is fun, at least for me. I think learning and exploring our important facets of life. Writing these posts check those boxes.

Oten as I am digging around on the web, I check the date to see what happened in history. Was there some major event that resonated with me? Who was born on that date were influential for me in some way? Is the day a celebration of a thing that means something that I connect with? The internet is many things, but as far as a tool for information gathering it sure beats the encyclopedia, I read from cover to cover as a child. So, I cast about and see what I can find and often, I learn things that are either fascinating or humorous to me in equal measures. At the end of the day, I am writing this for me, so my guess is that most readers will read a few lines and move on. That is fine too!

For this day, I poked around to see what national day it is, and I found the range of celebrations rather humorous. I can use some humor, so this is what is going on the page today. Some of the things it is a national day of today:

·        National Testosterone Awareness Day  –  The national day celebrating the primary male hormone. But for some reason I find it humorous that it is also World Vasectomy Day. What an odd coincidence on which I have no further comment other than to note, if I did not write this blog, I would not know this fact.   

·        It is also National Unfriend Day, in which we are to unfriend on social media people who do not bring us joy, this national event comes to us because of Jimmy Kimmel. I wonder if we were less quick to unfriend, we may learn something and end up with new friends. I don’t want to only be connected to people who see and feel the same way I do. Beyond bots, I have hit the unfriend button less times than I have fingers on my hands. Mean is my threshold.

·        Food celebrated this day include Baklava and Homemade Bread. I hope I am fortunate enough to observe both on this day. I received a gift of homemade sourdough bread from a dear friend recently. I enjoyed every morsel.

·        It is world Prematurity day, I was one so this resonates. It is set up to support families dealing with the challenges of a premature birth. Being born early was the first, but not last challenge I presented to my parents. Grateful for all they did to raise me despite all the things I put them through.

·        There are two names being celebrated today, Rueben and Jaden. If you are a Rueben of a Jaden, today is your day. I made it this far in life before I found out that people named William have a day, too. Ours is October 28th. I looked back and saw I spent mine with some good friends!

·        For wine aficionados it is Zinfandel Day. There are 17 days of the calendar dedicated to observing wine. At one point in my life, every day was national wine or other alcoholic beverage day. Thanks to a dear friend, John Winslow there is actually an International Recovery Day for people like us.  Thank you, John, for founding a day for former imbibers!

·        It is also National Hiking Day. Go put your boots on and get outdoors and celebrate this one, nature is perhaps the most effective mental and physical health medicine in our arsenal.

Where do National Days come from? Getting a national day declared for your favorite thing isn't as hard as you think. All one has to do is register it on the National Day Calendar. The full list is HERE. Now I know that January 1st is Frankenstein Day. Yet I also learned it is celebrated again on August 30th as it is Mary Shelley's birthday. I found a list of weird national holidays. We have a National Cheesy Socks Day (January 21st), A Curmudgeons Day (January 29), which I will observe by asking some kids to get off my (tiny) lawn, National Poop Day (February 12) and Thumb Appreciation Day (February 18th), where would we be without opposable digits!

How special can a day be if it is so very easy to set up its observance. I thought of registering a day in honor of my favorite movie, the Big Lebowski, but I see that March 6th is “the Day of the Dude” to honor all things Lebowski. Far out.

On reflection, every day really is special. Today, I am facilitating a training I put together titled “Are we Helping or Hurting? Family Dynamics, Substance Misuse, Addiction & Recovery” and then hanging out with our dogs as Julie visits family. Thanksgiving, the day of gratitude approaches. One of my favorite holidays! Today, I celebrate having the opportunity to be both productive and relax. A chance to share things I have learned with others and an opportunity to learn new things. I am one of those people that think that life is about learning, and we have an opportunity to stretch those horizons each and every day. Writing this post helped me learn a bunch of things I would not otherwise know. Grateful for Julie Miller for making this platform for me a number of years ago! Let’s observe today, in all its glory!

What are you grateful for today?