Blog

I take celebrating seriously. I also am a bit ridiculous when it comes to finding small things to celebrate. I used to keep a bottle of champagne in my fridge to be ready for important things like the first sunflower opening in spring or the last leaf falling off the tree in autumn so I could have friends around my table to share some joy.

Full disclosure, my brain has really struggled with the cold this May and the short dark days this June. Not because they are particularly cold or shorter than my winter experiences – just that they are in my calendar experience of spring and summertime. Since it’s winter here, I’ve also missed my winter markers that make the season pass easier. Namely, Christmas. So to help me out, my life group is doing a midwinter Christmas in a couple weeks, but I also got a few other things on the calendar to help me make it through. June 21 is the winter solstice in the southern hemisphere which means that I’ve officially reached the shortest day of the year and am now heading towards longer days.

To mark this moment, I invited some people over to have hot chocolate (which cannot be called hot cocoa down under as I learned this weekend) by candlelight. Because why not? I really enjoyed the chance to have some laughs with warm drinks in hand as I saw a full table of people in my home. Paige had texted me earlier in the day noting how she’d marked the summer solstice above the equator by telling someone, “If we were in Kandern, Laura would be throwing a party at her picnic table right now.”

Full disclosure, the first summer solstice party I had at the picnic table was actually instigated and planned by Amanda, but subsequent solstice celebrations were largely driven by me. I just love a reason to celebrate. I don’t really love being overwhelmed with people, but I do love the chance to let people know they’re worth time and effort. I also think that celebrations are an important redirect of focus when there’s always a steady flow of bad news coming from around the world. I honestly have enough bad news in my own health journey that I need to put attention on the good things I also see God doing around me.

Saturday night I spent the evening at church with some wonderful women who are passionate about growing in their walk with Jesus and who want to share that with others. We had a panel chat about mentoring and how that can look in different phases of life, and I loved seeing the spread of women through the generations engaging in conversation about how they’ve been poured into an how they’ve chosen to invest in others. No surprise, I’m pretty passionate about mentoring young people, but I got a chance to reflect on the value of having Tiffiny and Karin step into my life at a young age and Tina and Jen building me up as a teenager and young adult. I’ve also got this really unique friendship with women like Carol and Brandi who I consider close friends but who also have a few years more life experience and who offer some of the best life advice. I love being able to celebrate women like that in my life who care enough to know me and want to see me grow in my faith.

Whatever it means to be made in the image of God, it has to do with relationship, and as messy as that can be, it’s also one of the most beautiful things, and I love that I can celebrate that with so many people in so many places. Sure I’d rather be having a summer solstice this week, but I’ll be absolutely loving it in six months time when I’m the one enjoying the long days of the summer Christmas season. I’m sure I’ll have plenty more things on my list to celebrate by then too.