This past weekend, I attended two events in the lives of people I care about. One was a funeral and the other was a wedding. I noticed so much more of the events because I didn’t walk into them as an emotional sponge. I was able to ground myself and experience both events as an observer.

What I noticed about the funeral and wedding is that they are an expression of our feelings. The emotions are raw and the shields are down for a moment as we show how really feel about another person. The only thing I wondered is why can’t we do that more often. Why can’t we express our love and our true feelings on days other than birthdays, weddings and funerals. Unfortunately, we often realize how much we love someone when they are no longer here. We don’t miss them because they are always around. But, we miss the opportunity to tell them all that we feel once they are gone. Maybe, it’s important to allow your emotions to be raw and profess your feelings to that person because you never know when they won’t be around. No one is guaranteed tomorrow.

While at the wedding, I looked at all these people who showed up to celebrate the love that their loved one found. It’s an outpouring of loving support and a celebration. If you are single, when do you have an event like this? If you don’t create it for yourself, you may never. I think it is important for single people to create events where people can celebrate them. It may be as simple as a birthday. It could be tied to work or their favorite holiday. But, most of us are loved by people in ways that we don’t know until they are given an opportunity to show up for us. As a single person, you can get so strong and so use to not needing people who you don’t create opportunities for anyone else to step in and show up. It’s important that you do. People want to give. Allow them an opportunity to give. Don’t wait until you have someone else to celebrate you.

I walked away from this event and saw that the funeral is the final celebration of our life. But, we shouldn’t wait for that day to show how we feel. Create celebrations of your life throughout your life.