Poof!!..Another 365 days

"Life places another year in your hands and poof! You are granted 365 more sunrises, 52 more Sunday afternoons, one big, beautiful year filled with opportunities to eat ice cream, smile for no reason, take a day off, [& see the beauty in the sky]. One more year of the simple, the satisfying experiences that make a life. May it be a good one"

I found this quote on a birthday card I sent my sister one year when I was in college (I added the sky part). I loved it so much that I wrote it down and kept it for myself too. Because it's important to remember to appreciate the "poof!" Life is beautiful and wonderful and awesome and amazing and full. If we let it be. I think I do a pretty good job if loving my life. It can be hard. It can be sad. But the sorrow is what makes us appreciate the joy. The joy is what causes our sorrow. In the words of the great Khalil Gibran,

"Your joy is your sorrow unmasked. And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with our tears. And how else can it be? The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain. Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter's oven? And is not the lute that soothes your spirit the very wood that was hollowed with knives? When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy. When you are sorrowful, look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight."

My heart is full of love. I had the most amazing day. It's nothing I did exactly. It's just the way it was spent-- with people I love, laughing, reading, relaxing, eating chocolate, being, smiling. It was a good day, a great day.

Thank you to everyone for sharing it with me in some way. You are amazing. I am who I am because of you. Because at one point or another our paths crossed and you changed me. Here's to another 365 days of all of the love and laughter and living my heart can hold.

~Olivia