What’s not to like about a celebration? Take birthdays, for example. Remember your milestone sixteenth? Your 21st? The Big 4-0 wrapped in black?  Birthdays are big, from the birth of a child to the birth of a nation.

But our love of a celebration doesn’t stop with birthdays. We celebrate when our favorite team wins, when we’re given a promotion. When we marry. When we divorce. Celebrations are held for first communions, confirmations, bar mitzvahs, graduations. At memorial services, we celebrate lives well-lived. What is it about celebrations?

Obviously, they make us feel good, keep us smiling and invigorated. But celebrations do more than that. They reflect our cultural values. Our spiritual beliefs. They help us reach out to friends and into ourselves. They help us affirm life or cope or fill us with pride.

And what’s a celebration without cake?

Recently, we were invited to celebrate the birth of a family when an adoption became final. An event worthy of champagne and … cake. It was a beautiful afternoon, celebrating a beautiful child.

Celebrations touch something inside us as writers. They nudge our emotions and our words. This piece was written for the adoption party, for the happy mother and her new baby daughter  …

In My Arms

Emma, my sweet little girl, how your
Every breath fills me with joy, with hope.

My heart overflows. I whisper softly,
“May your life ever sing of choices, of dreams.”

“Mama,” you answer, with a clap of your hands.
Many times blessed, I hug you close.

Always I’ll remember the first time I saw you,
A family we became, mother and daughter.

Think of a recent celebration you’ve attended. The events that occurred. The people. The emotion. There may be a story there.  Or a poem. Or a lyric.

“In My Arms” csm©2013