Celebrate!

This year is already eleven days old, and most of you reading here will admit that you are already bogged down with everything and everyone demanding your attention.  It might even feel as if the holiday you have recently had never happened at all.  We have so many roles to fill, errands to run and deadlines to meet that we end up with very little time for ourselves.  We arrange meetings, events, retreats and  parties for everybody else, but forget to invite ourselves.  We encourage, praise and inspire our family, our spouses and our colleagues yet spare no thought for ourselves.  This brings me to my next resolution for this year.

My husband often says that you can only give somebody fifty cents if you have fifty sends to give.  If we spare no time for ourselves we will sooner or later have no time to give to others, we will be physically and emotionally too exhausted to care any longer.  It is essential that we schedule time for ourselves.  This year it is time to give ourselves a pat on the shoulders, and to celebrate who we are.

You have been wonderfully made.  Rejoice in it.  There is nobody like you.  You are unique.  Celebrate the wonder of you, give thanks for your health and be awed by your talents and unique abilities.  Celebrate the woman, mother or daughter you are.  Give yourself credit, smile at yourself.

As women we have been taught by our mothers to put ourselves last, we are the caretakers, the nurturers and the support system for our families.  We feed our families first, and we provide for their needs before we spend time or money on ourselves.  We save the good china for our daughters for one day.  No more!  Take out the silver and fine porcelain and lay the table for Thursday night's dinner, even if it is a humble meal of sausage and smash, pour Oros into those delicate crystal glasses and drink a toast to being alive and being a woman, a mother, daughter, wife and friend.

And remember:  YOU are awesome!