This has been a week for big, serious celebrations—Passover, Good Friday, Earth Day and of course, Sunday is Easter. So I couldn’t help chuckling when I found an email in my inbox today from a dog treat bakery with the headline “April 24th is National Pet Day!” Who knew? I certainly didn’t and I love pets, especially my dog, Winky.
It seems like there’s a holiday for everything these days, from hairstyle appreciation (April 30) to lost socks (May 9) to whoopie pies (the fourth Saturday in June, at least in Maine). At first this struck me as kind of ridiculous. Do we really need to memorialize something as banal and trivial as lost socks? But the more I think about it, the more I believe there’s a good lesson in thinking positive here.
And that’s the idea that there is something to celebrate every single day of our lives. It makes for an easy and effective positive thinking technique too: The next time you find yourself feeling down and grumbling, “I’m having such a bad day!” reverse those negative thoughts by thinking of one thing about that day to celebrate.
It can be something small, like the fact that you had your umbrella when a sudden April shower hit. Or something more meaningful, like your daughter’s giggle. Or even something quirky and absurd, like the enduring mystery of where all those lost socks go. Though I prefer whoopie pies myself.
