A New Kind of Holiday

by Katie Blackburn | February 2022

Ah February, when cupid descends on store aisles and paints them various shades of red and pink everywhere we go. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good heart garland hanging over my fireplace, but I’m starting to wonder as I take in all the chocolate and the miniature cards we help our 6-year-olds make for their classmates, why love is one of the only virtues that gets a whole month. One could argue that gratitude has a lock on November with Thanksgiving and all; but besides that, what other character traits do we celebrate en masse? 

I’m not here to take a thing away from either of these holidays. I love thankful people. I love loving people. I aspire to be both. But I’m here because I’ve decided I’d like to make up my own virtue-centered holiday, one we will celebrate every single day from now until always.

I’ll call it Show Up Day, and we are celebrating courage. It starts today.

Did anyone tell you, as you rubbed your large belly and sipped virgin mimosas at your baby shower, as you waited with anticipation to learn what color her eyes would be, or if he’d have your nose or his dad’s, just how much courage this—the whole being a mom thing—would take? 

Did anyone tell you that motherhood would require every bit of courage you have?

The dictionary defines courage as the ability to do something that frightens you. 

Sounds about right, yes?

Until you’re a mom, it’s nearly impossible to imagine how frightening it can be to do this.

To go back to work after maternity leave.

To drop her off at school for the first time.

To walk in to the doctor with a toddler on your hip who still isn’t talking.

To tell your teenagers that the doctor said it’s cancer, and you need chemo.

To explain what chemo is at all.

To make an appointment with the therapist.

To start taking the Zoloft.

To find an answer for the “why did God let that happen, Mom?” question.

To hand him the keys to the car for the first time.

To watch her make poor choices.

To tell them you’re not sure when dad will be back.

To still make the bed in the morning when you could barely get out of it.

But we’re doing it friends. We’re showing up to all these things and a thousand more, sometimes in yoga pants and sometimes with sunglasses and red lipstick on because we’re feeling it that day. We’re doing it because God hard-wired courage into each one of us. It gets buried too easily, under comparison and discontentment and stress and the loud voices of a hundred opinions. But it’s there. We may not always know what we’re doing or how the chapter we’re in ends; but we’re here, doing the hard stuff, asking forgiveness, praying for grace, waking up to do it all again. 

And I’m celebrating us today.

Happy Show Up Day, dear friends. Don’t forget to put a card in the mail to a friend. And remember it’s also tomorrow, and the next day and the next day and the next, too. 

All my love,

Katie

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