On a Facebook post recently, I showed the above photograph of my husband and I on our wedding anniversary, while celebrating at a child’s birthday party at the same time.
Initially, we were going to spend the evening alone which is always wonderful, but this particular evening, we felt inspired to share in the birthday festivities too!
We generally tend to celebrate our special occasions for an entire week anyway, so we didn’t miss anything but GAINED everything.
Showing up for others has a surprising way of showing up for ourselves as well!
Not only does being present for others deepen our interpersonal connections and spread joyful feelings throughout our relationships, it also spreads a sense of well-being within our own internal emotional systems too!
Certainly, there is nothing wrong with declining invitations, and carving out our own special time for privately celebrating whichever way we choose.
However, in this particular instance and many others that occur, sometimes just showing up can produce the most unexpected results, and leave a positive ripple effect that one could never anticipate.
In what ways have you shown up and experienced positive outcomes?
The Cathie Barash Blog 
What a lovely picture Cathie!
Thank you Ute! Appreciate the nice compliment! 🙂