Two of my most favorite things are being celebrated this month: the Earth and my son–Wowza!
Earth Day is this Monday, April 22, and I hope you’re planning to celebrate bigly!
How wonderful to move through our lives intentionally, celebrating things and events we cherish (compared to that of complaining or worrying). Complaining and worrying have their place for sure, but hopefully, our active celebrations are louder and more present.
What are some fun ways to celebrate Earth Day?
Here’s a quick list of easy ways your family can celebrate Earth Day!
- Eat wonderful foods from the local farmers’ market. Let them know you really appreciate them growing food for you to purchase and eat.
- Take a long family/partner/pet/self/neighbor/schoolmate/etc. walk in your neighborhood or your local park.
- Invite friends and family over for a potluck meal.
- Make cookies or any delicious, fun treat for a neighbor or someone you admire in your community.
- Donate money to an Earth-friendly cause. Earth Day looks like a fabulous organization. I’ve always liked the Environmental Defense Fund, and our National Parks Service has a newsletter and a cool map (US) to find parks and ways to volunteer or get involved.
And yes, eating is a celebration.
Taking a walk can be a celebration.
Sharing a meal with people you interact with regularly is absolutely a celebration!
Doing things with the intention of celebrating is an amazing act of love and kindness for life!
Have you ever seen this video of the little girl giving herself a morning peptalk? It’s a must watch for inspiration on how to celebrate the beginning of any day. She’s an inspiring and very energetic, positive little girl. That’s how it can be done on most days!
How can we mesh together Earth Day and Autism Awareness Month?
All of the above ways of celebrating, of course, but here are a few extra ideas that might speak more directly to your autistic child or friend:
- Check out these super cute 5 Easy Autism-Friendly Earth Day Projects
- Ask your autistic child what they’d like to celebrate for Earth Day. They might say Minecraft or FortNite or Science or Outerspace or Tater Tots or whatever . . . Go with it!
- This is a perfect opportunity to show them that celebrating is part of life, and they can be involved in how that goes (age-appropriateness and ability of participants needs to be taken into account)
- And what about coloring this cool Earth Day coloring page?
Pretty much anything that brings you and your family joy is the celebration!
There’s always something to celebrate if we just take time to look . . . and you can quote me on that!
Right now, I have three healthy cats, money for my bills, groceries, and some extras. I’m healthy, my kids are healthy, I feel safe, and I live in a relatively safe environment. We’re going to start making kombucha because Mason is taking a microbes class. How fun is that? It’s all these little things that really add up to a great life.
There’s always other stuff to do as well, right? You could make a long list right now of stuff that might not belong on the “not-celebratable” list.
Me? I have to pay my bills and feed my cats early in the morning when I don’t want to sometimes. I have to figure out how to schedule my new car’s oil change. I have to take my 8 supplements and eat my 1 cup of daily green leafies. These are all things I could actually get behind celebrating, though I do like narrowing my celebrations to things that bring me immense joy.
That’s the cool thing–we can all celebrate what we want to in our own unique way.
You are cordially invited to decide on something to celebrate for Earth Day, Autism Awareness Month, or that other thing you’re super grateful for . . . and then as a family to do just that.
Make celebrating happen.
Include your kids in the planning.
Create a celebrations budget if you want to teach some financial skills.
Decide who you’d like to include outside of your family unit.
But do it.
Go forth and celebrate!
Because this life right now is worth celebrating.
Boundless love and support,
Extra note: The song Some Houses by Billy Jonas is probably my favorite about the Earth, where we live.