shonagoldencelebrant.co.uk

 

Celebrating is a part of human nature.

Praise the lord, because life can get really hard, dreary, and impossibly painful at times.

We celebrate our achievements and milestones by gathering around the people we love most and drink, eat and dance.

Drinking, dancing, and eating are three things that most humans will agree on as the fun and must do things when celebrating.

Think of your earliest birthday party. Your friends were there, your family dressed in their finest and I bet you more than likely had brightly coloured jelly and ice cream and cupcakes, warm orange squash. Very possibly you had the Birdie song playing in the background. Musical chairs, pass the parcel with newspaper underneath because spending money on that many layers of wrapping is for insanely rich people ..OK boomer… (Gen X actually)

My mum always made butterfly buns with butter cream. They were my absolute favourite. I remember eating the wings, licking the icing like a creamy lollipop, and throwing the bottom of the cake away before starting on another.

Trifle was always present, as were egg mayonnaise sandwiches.

An occasion isn’t an occasion without egg mayonnaise sandwiches around my yard.

The thing that I remember most is being told. YOU CANT EAT YET! Everybody must be there gathered around the veritable feast, admiring it, and collectively saying ‘Lovely spread.’

Once this ritual was complete and the agreement on ‘The lovely spread’ was established. Only then, could you take your flimsy paper plate, and fill it with Snowballs, tea cakes, and pink wafers.

I always took a cocktail stick with cheese and pineapple and placed it on the corner of my flimsy plate. Even though I knew I wouldn’t eat it.

I was worried my mum would think I didn’t appreciate her carefully crafting half a grapefruit into a cheese and pineapple hedgehog.

I did appreciate it..

Weddings and Christenings have the best cake. It is hard to be unhappy when you have cake. Being Surrounded by your loved ones. Obligatory cheesy music on. Check.. Cake in the vicinity check ..Dad dancing. Check .. Nanna getting squiffy Check!

 

When you look back at life and miss all the people that were once your world, your universe, your moons and stars, and everything in between. It is the celebrating with them that we remember the most. The shocking photos with awful haircuts that are burned into our retinas with embarrassment. Did I really want that mullet? This is our lives. A treasury of ups and downs, black and white. Joy and sadness. This is the roller coaster that is life. I hate that expression, but what is life other than a collection of highs and lows, twists and turns, culminating together to make our journey a real and bumpy one. Sometimes our worlds are thrown upside down and leave us feeling sick. It is unrealistic to think that life will always be a smooth, happy life. It is unrealistic to think that life will always be plain sailing and full of joy and happiness. Life is real, and life is tough. But thank God the struggles we face make us stronger, and they make us wiser. They make us appreciate the good times. When we can be surrounded by our loved ones and we can dance, and we can smile, and we can laugh.

Life is short. Celebrate.

Shona xx