8 Holidays Every Happy Woman Celebrates
Observe each one—even the silly and tricky-to-schedule—and see what happens....
By Amy Shearn
Random Acts of Kindness Week (February 10-16)
Mark your datebooks. Last year, one random act of kindness at a cash register made this
New York Times writer,
"irrationally happy." But the extreme-challenge winner sent
11,000 handwritten letters to lonely folk all over the world (with some help from volunteers). Why not share the gift of unreasonably good vibes—and get some in return? After all, it's February. We all need it.
World Sleep Day (March 14)
When we don't sleep, we become, as Charles Baxter wrote in his great insomniac novel
The Feast of Love, "glimmerless". So for goodness sake,
doze off like it's your job.
Today, it is.
Reconciliation Day (April 2)
Way back in 1989, Ann Landers published a column on what she called
Reconciliation Day. Her response to the reader in Orlando, however, is timeless: "To be able to forgive can be enormously healing and life-enhancing. It is the best example of casting bread upon the waters and getting back caviar sandwiches. Do it today."
International Museum Day (May 18)
"Museums are custodians of epiphanies,"
wrote designer George Lois, who considers his weekly visits to
the Met a "spiritual day of worship." Add to this that touring art museums actually makes you smarter,
which a recent study found. Imagine that:
a day designed to provide you extra IQ points and fresh insight.
National Simplify Your Life Week (August 4-10)
Get festive on Simplify Your Life Week by cutting out, throwing away, paring down and giving yourself the great gift of saying no. (
Oh, and we happen to have hundreds of ideas as to how to do this.)
World Gratitude Day (September 21)
Yes, we should do this every day. But just in case life has gotten in the way,
find 15 minutes in the next eight hours to meditate on gratitude or to start (or restart)
your gratitude journal.
Sweetest Day (October 18)
Sweetest Day was started in 1922 by Ohio philanthropist (okay, and member of the candy industry) Herbert Birch Kingston as a way to do "something sweet" for Cleveland's orphans by enlisting movie stars to deliver the kids candy. Nowadays, you just give treats to people you like. Consider it a laid-back alternative to Valentine's Day: all of the chocolate, none of the not-so-romantic stress.
National Day of Listening (November 28)
"Ask great questions. Share great stories," is the only requirement of the
National Day of Listening (brought to you by the story-sharing organization
StoryCorps). Or...if you're feeling inspired, find someone important in your life, interview her (or him), and share it on the site. The bonus? The holiday takes place on Black Friday. Imagine the joy of talking to a friend or family member about the plane he flew over France in 1944...instead of standing in line for a new retina-display tablet at 4:44 in the morning.
Amy Shearn is the author of The Mermaid of Brooklyn: A Novel and How Far Is the Ocean from Here?.
Next: 35 little acts of kindness
Published 01/09/2014
