Holidays Provide Wonderful Opportunities for Reflection, Reverance and Rememberance

I write this post a day after Father's Day, a day set aside to celebrate fathers and fatherhood. History.com  provides an excellent historical synopsis of how this particular holiday began and I urge you to visit the hyperlink reference above to learn more. You'll learn information such as the fact that there are more than 70 million fathers in the United States (Bet ya didn't know that). 

The prompting of this post stemmed from my Father's Day 2018 experiences which began at a Father's Day breakfast at my church. The day proceeded with my daughter sitting with me during our church service, my visiting my own father's gravesite, being taken to dinner by my wife and ending with my daughter taking me out and treating me to an ice cream dessert. Father's Day 2018 ranked right up there on the top of the list as one of my best celebrated Father's Days in several years.

As I stood beside my father's gravesite, I found it hard to believe that 33 years have gone by since his sudden passing one week prior to his 49th birthday in 1985. Fond reflections of my childhood days with my father ran through my mind as if I were watching scenes from a movie. As I brushed some dried blades of grass off of his headstone, I could hear his voice, his laugh and even see some of his facial expressions. As I stood there, I reflected on my own experiences of being a father and it dawned on me why we pause to celebrate and commemorate on days such as Father's Day. 

As we annually interrupt our daily or weekly routines to acknowledge people or events, it can be easy for us to reduce the moments to just another "Hallmark Card" day that we take for granted instead of really taking the time to do what the breather from the norm was designed for. It behooves us to reflect, revere, remember, celebrate, commemorate, acknowledge, recommit, refocus, and respect whatever or whoever the various days honor. Depending on where one is or what is going on in life, these days can bring up a wide range of emotions and they can vary like a roller coaster from year to year. I mentioned above how Father's Day 2018 was one of my best in recent years because, for some years, Father's Day was not good for me based on what was going on in life at that moment. Another example might be someone who lost his/her father to death between Father's Days and is celebrating Father's Day for the first time without his/her father. Examples such as these can be applied to any of our holidays. 

Lastly, if at all possible, do whatever you can to take in the spirit of each holiday to the fullest because we really don't know when we are celebrating our last one of whichever one it is. Many loved ones pass away from one annual holiday to the next. We don't know when it will be our last Mother's Day, Father's Day, 4th of July, Memorial Day, Labor Day, New Year's Day, Christmas, Hanukkah, etc. etc. or the last one our loved ones will be with us. Take these wonderful opportunities to enjoy your family and friends and take some time during each holiday to reflect, revere and remember. 

Hear me live each Saturday from 6-9 a.m. ET as I host The Reading Circle with Marc Medley radio show on gobrave.org(web streamed around the world) and on FM radio 88.7 FM in northern NJ. I invite you to follow me on Twitter @thinkcritical01 and @readingcircle01.