I’m congratulating him on successfully acquiring something he was looking forward to having that can be hard to get on launch day. And I do congratulate friends and family when they get new toasters and TVs. I grew up on the cusp of poor in a poor neighborhood where families even worse off than mine had very little. My mom came up from ragged poverty that was so bad her younger brothers almost went blind from malnutrition during a period spent as war refugees and their stories made a huge impression on me, growing up. So there is in my psyche an innate sense of gratitude and celebration for anything that goes even remotely well, even if it’s for someone else. Heck, especially for someone else. When you’re happy for someone else, it lifts up your own spirit up twofold, I think.
So whenever someone gets something nice, especially when the circumstances are unexpected but welcome, we celebrate. I tend to celebrate anything good, positive, fun. I’m NOT getting an iPhone X for myself today. My husband is, it’s his birthday present. I’m happy for him, too.
Yes this is a celebration of material gain, but we celebrate spiritual things in my family, too. When I depart this earth someday, I hope one thing I leave behind for people to remember me by is that I lived my life in gratitude and appreciation for every blessing, and even every lesson.
