Something To Celebrate: Purple Heart Day

Background photo by Cristina Matos-Albers (@matosalbers)

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Here's a tiny fact to tuck into your pocket: Purple Heart Day is observed every year on August 7th, marking the date in 1782 when General George Washington established the original Badge of Military Merit — a literal heart-shaped piece of purple cloth. It later evolved into the medal we recognize today, awarded to service members wounded or killed in action. Small badge. Enormous weight behind it.

Now, most of us will never earn a Purple Heart, and honestly, that's fine. But there's something quietly relatable about the idea of carrying a visible mark of something hard you went through. We all have our invisible ones — the difficult year, the relationship that cost you something, the thing you pushed through when nobody was watching. Today feels like a good excuse to acknowledge that surviving difficult things is genuinely worth noticing, whether you received a medal or just made it to Thursday.

There's always something to celebrate, even when it's small, even when it's a little awkward to say out loud. Today it's honoring real courage and real sacrifice. Tomorrow it might just be that your coffee was exactly right. Both count. The calendar is generous that way if you let it be.

So today, maybe take a quiet moment — no fanfare required, introverts rejoice — to think about someone who served, or simply to acknowledge the battles you and the people around you are quietly carrying. Then go enjoy the rest of your day, ideally with something purple nearby, because why not lean into the aesthetic a little.

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