Celebrate More!

I woke up a few days ago craving fresh squeezed apple juice, so I went to Publix to get some granny smiths to juice in my fantastic juicer. When I arrived there were just a few reddish apples hiding in a relatively obscure section of the fruit realm, so I asked an employee if they had any granny smiths. He said that this time of year apples had to be brought in from far away in refrigeration and he was surprised to see they actually had a selection between 2 types, gala and fuji. I felt excited by this (I love options) and selected some galas. Once home I juiced them immediately. As the first tang of the sweet liquid soaked my tongue, I was hit by the heavy question: do I celebrate or feel guilty?

I'm aware my carbon footprint is much larger due to the jet fuel and refrigeration and extra resources required to bring these apple over from Chile, and it's very easy (and perhaps moral and even exalted) for me to let the guilt sour the succulence at each sip. But, the truth about me is I prefer to buy what's in season, and support our local farmers, and I do that most of the time. This morning I happened to wake up with a strong desire for apple juice, and as I went over again what it must've taken to bring these apples to my refrigerator - I nearly leapt in gratitude! For the workers who picked them, and the pilot who flew them, and the bus driver who drove them, and the refrigerator inventors and the grocery store builders and the employee who reminded me they come from far away...this was nothing but a reason to ---

CELEBRATE!!! We live in this time, in this age of technology and human advancement, that we have ways of bringing fruit from far far away and keeping it fresh - and making girls like me with out of season apple juice cravings so so so HAPPY!! I chose celebrating rather than guilt. And in making this choice I discovered over and over again more great reasons to celebrate.

Like the hose. The technology of a squirting water device, that brings water from an unseen location and squirts, not pours, anywhere you point it, at varying levels of force - this is a GENIUS TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCE that makes my life so so so pleasurable. If you squirt the hose quickly then let up, the water shoots across the yard like fountains at the Bellagio. This is fun to do, and in a way meditative. And if you aim it over dry grass, it's productive too! Brilliant!

There are so many other superb reasons to celebrate that I've come to an awareness - we really are an under-celebrative culture. We have so many reasons at every split second to jump in the air, scream "YEAH", dance crazy like we don't care, and laugh wildly! I am going to do this more. To start, please join me in a round of cheers:

Here's to thread!!!

Here's to those plastic things on the end of shoelaces!

Here's to duct tape!

And here's to the invention of the glass! What a AMAZING and clean and dry way to ingest liquids of all flavors and temperatures!!! Hurrah humanity!

May you discover a reason to celebrate today, and may that lead to more reasons, and more reasons, until you never dreamed life could be so...celebrational!

Love and dancing seagulls,

Lucinda

Luci ButlerJuly 23, 2014Comment