We all know that finding reasons to celebrate becomes even more necessary when there are lots of reasons to despair. Words have associations for me. Despair is a drain in a rainstorm. Celebration is light but full of energy. Leaps. Twirls and whirls.

Moment by moment. Tiny and full. We can choose to walk through our weeks gathering the energy to remain in the place to celebrate.

There is some sadness in my room. Some weighty things that are hard. But I collected the light and there is much that is joyful. It all adds up to many reasons to smile.

Sharing some of them here 🙂

We had a week of hiphop dancing with the brilliant Kimberly Stevenson from The Happening Dance Studio here in Vancouver. One morning I arrived at school to see an impromptu early morning rehearsal going on. Students all helping each other with their steps.

How I love the artists in my room. We have started hanging up our whale art inspired by the book Wild Ideas: Let Nature Inspire Your Thinking written by Elin Kelsey and illustrated by Soyeon Kim. Placed next to each other, we have a beautiful under the sea collage happening.

Buddy reading is always a highlight of our week. I caught this little guy mid bellow – the best kind of carried away laughing there is!

Here are my dancers! Showing me their silly just before our big performance. Dance teacher Kim is right in there with us. How we adore her!

Some little notes of gratitude for Kim 🙂

Flowers for Mamas.

Community. Posing with black and white hearts and a little bit of playground play on Friday afternoon. These pictures are for a thank you to Kim, our hip hop teacher which will be on our class blog.

Thank you to Ruth Ayres and the #celebratelu community! Being part of a community that regularly shares gratitude and celebrations truly transforms my weeks.