A Made-up Day

This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it!  ~Psalm 118:24

Yesterday, as numerous Facebook posts would have me believe, was Siblings Day. Many of those well wishes to and memories of siblings described the day as a "made up day." This made me think, aren't they all - "made up?" Mother's and Father's days were created by greeting card companies. Even the big ones like Christmas and Easter co-opted existing "days" and evolved through cultural and religious influences. 

Perhaps the most "made-up" day of our time was created by a television show. Does anybody remember (or celebrate) "Festivus for the rest of us!?"    

There are anniversaries, including birthdays,  that celebrate dates of actual events, but even these have a sense of made-up-ness because we as individuals and communities decide which days are to be remembered and which are not.

The truth is a day is just a day until we give it meaning through the attention we give it or the memory we have of it. Each day is (to use a few cliches) a blank canvas, an empty page, a path yet made. As the psalmist above says, each day is a gift to become what we give it, what we put into it, how we react to its events. 

"The sun comes up and the sun goes down." Whether a day is fully lived, remembered, commemorated, or celebrated is up to us.

So, go out and make up a day!