Casabo Community is about helping you find your direction when life changes, feels uncertain or calls you towards something new. Through The Compass by Casabo, facilitated circles and a supportive community, we create space to pause, reflect, connect and take your next steps with greater clarity and intention. Stay in touch.
π When did we stop celebrating ourselves?
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Sunday Reflection but would like to keep receiving the emails you initially signed up for, Hi Reader This week my friend Luz Elena said something that's been going round and round in my mind. She said: "It's really important to mark the moment." The comment came during one of our 'I Believe in Me!' training sessions as we were talking about the importance of endings and celebrations for children. Luz Elena observed how often, as adults, we finish or achieve something - big or small - and without thinking, we just move on to the next thing. We donβt take the time to pause, give ourselves a pat on the back, acknowledge our progress, or celebrate it in some way. We donβt mark the moment. If children see us rush from one achievement to the next without ever acknowledging our own progress, perhaps they learn that reaching the finish line is never enough - that there's always another race to run. Earlier this month, it was my mum and dad's 65th wedding anniversary. Sixty-five years - just writing that number feels remarkable. To celebrate, this week while I've been over in London, we went to see High Society at the theatre. It wasn't a random choice. My parents first went to see the movie with Grace Kelly and Frank Sinatra in it in the late 1950s. They were just 'courting' - what a lovely word - and they sat on the back row hand in hand in their local cinema. As I was growing up, whenever the song 'True Love' played, they would say, "This is our song," so it felt rather nostalgic to revisit that memory together with them. We made a whole day of it. Coffee in the morning. A leisurely lunch. A taxi to and from the theatre. Coffee before the curtain went up. Then a cup of tea afterwards when we got back home. It was a day that quietly said, this moment matters. And it made me think. Almost always, in my own life, I finish one thing and immediately just move on to the next. Finish the project. (I love a project.) Tick it off my list. (I love a list.) Then, without a second thought, I immediately scan to see whatβs next. This week I completed something I'd been working towards for quite a while. Normally I would have moved right on, but Luz Elena's words were still circling in my mind. So instead, I deliberately paused. I made a coffee and made myself sit down for a couple of hours with no agenda whatsoever, simply allowing myself to enjoy the feeling of having finished a big piece of work. No productivity for two hours. Nothing to achieve. I gave myself permission to relish the feeling of, "Well done. You did it." It felt unfamiliar. In fact, doing nothing was much harder for me than doing something. I realised how uncomfortable I am simply letting myself enjoy something I've finished before my mind starts looking for the next thing to accomplish. Celebrating doesn't always have to be about balloons and parties and champagne (or in my case, as I'm teetotal, my favourite tipple is a tonic water with lemon - yes, I know....I'm so wild). Perhaps sometimes it's simply about pausing long enough to acknowledge that we've come a little further than we were yesterday. Taking time to notice the effort, to appreciate the journey and to let ourselves feel the satisfaction of the progress we've made before racing off towards the next finish line. So perhaps the gentle thought this week is simply this: Before you move on to the next thing this week, is there something worth pausing to celebrate first? Live as you dream β€οΈ Kimberley and Phil |
βKimberley and Phil Cooklin
Casabo Community is about helping you find your direction when life changes, feels uncertain or calls you towards something new. Through The Compass by Casabo, facilitated circles and a supportive community, we create space to pause, reflect, connect and take your next steps with greater clarity and intention. Stay in touch.
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