2017: More Hallelujahs and Grins

Tonight as I drove back to Nashville I listened to a podcast called The Marrow- where an author talks to creatives about who they are and why they make what they make. On this particular episode, he interviewed Andy Baxter (one-half of the band Penny and Sparrow). Andy's songwriting, lyricism, and seemingly never-ending word bank is something I've admired for years, so I was excited to hear more about what goes on inside his head as he creates. Andy said a lot of earnest and important words, but one of the things the interviewer kept circling back to was Andy's outlook and optimism towards life. 

Optimism, highlighting the good and even mundane things in life because they're worth celebrating. These are things I strive to do in my writing and creating, and hopefully these themes are poured out of everything I do. However, beyond optimism, Andy discussed the importance of celebration in a way that could shift around our insides for the better if we let it: 

"We don't pour glasses of nice scotch for a well-written paragraph and I think that we should."

He went on to discuss how we often times don't celebrate the pieces of the process, the small accomplishments that add up to the bigger feat. Instead, we add pressure on ourselves to do better and finish stronger, but never appreciating how we arrived at the end result. 

This is something I've noticed all too often in myself, and it's a habit I'd like to kick this year. I haven't made an official list of goals for 2017 yet, but celebrating more is something I absolutely want to work on. Not only do I want to help people see more light and joy in their days (because we already have too many people yelling at us otherwise), but I want to learn how to celebrate big even the smallest moments and successes. I wonder what our lives would truly look like if we slowed down enough to say "hallelujah" and really mean it, or to be the one in the room who's grin is contagious? 

Since he's much better with words, I'll leave you another quote from Andy that's still rattling around in my brain. May this be our mantra: 

"I want people to see more of the happy moments, and to dwell and celebrate on them than we do. I see an immense surplus of sad stuff on this earth, and not a lot of desire to dwell in the things that aren't. Part of me wants to be an agent of change. I get that stuff's hard, but if we could maybe just for a minute conjure up a grin, maybe it will become reality...I try to be the one that when no one else can find a smile, I've got a bag of them."