Day 2: Celebration
A celebration can mean a wide variety of things. You can celebrate a birthday with a large party, a small gathering, or a small cupcake just for you. An anniversary can be laying together, just resting, watching a movie, or it can be a fancy dinner at an expensive restaurant with beautiful clothing that you had to save a year to afford.
The things we celebrate vary with the wind. We celebrate holidays. We celebrate the Harvest, and things we enjoy. We celebrate friendships, and we celebrate accomplishments. We celebrate life. We celebrate both the small things and the good things. Sometimes the reason to celebrate is a baby's first steps. Sometimes, it's a good day, a spotlight in a month of bad days. Sometimes it's as grand as coming of age in a Bat Mitzvah, Sweet Sixteen, Commencement, and sometimes it's as small as making someone laugh who hasn't laughed in a long time.
Say you've escaped the horrors that used to torment you, and now it's time to heal. The scars are fresh, and just barely beginning to scab over. You jump at the small things, the things that used to not scare you. Strobe lights make you feel sick, and you yearn to bring color back into your life. Every small step is an accomplishment. Every small thing deserves a celebration, a gift for making it to the next thing.
For Richard Wayne, he had a hard time remembering to celebrate. He had a hard time realizing there were things to celebrate. What was being able to sit up when he used to be able to stand? What was being able to walk when he used to be able to run? What was making it through a whole day without disassociating when he used to spend weeks having fun with his friends?
The little things in life escaped him. Everything was a struggle. Until the little bright spot in his life decided that every little bit of progress he made deserved a gold sticker.
Of course, he had been the one to originally introduce the concept of gold stickers, but Damian had remembered and latched onto it with a manic glee. Walking down the stairs. Sticker. Laughing at a joke. Sticker. Puns. Sticker. Going outside and enjoying the sun and the rain. Sticker.
And if by the end, all the little celebrations added up, well, who was Richard to complain?